Though it is too early to say a Congress-less India but it is no denying the fact that the age-old political party is finding it difficult to survive in the changed political scenario. What 2014 parliamentary elections churned out for BJP an absolute majority Congress lost its roots and in many states its existence is negligible even in front of local and new political parties like Aam Admi Party (AAP) in New Delhi and whatever left was cleared after the present Assembly elections, it lost its one of the strongest state Assam. Here party had ruled unchallenged for the last sixteen years and today lost to BJP. No doubt it had improved its numbers in West Bengal by emerging the second largest party with 44 seats relegating the communists to the third. The one fact which has been brought to the fore front is though BJP has not been able to clinch big victories like in 2014 but it has increased its vote share which is the actual beginning of saffron spread in the country. In all other sates it was regional players who took the major share of vote bank like AIADMK in Tamil Nadu , LDF in Kerala, TMC in West Bengal which shows regional players are game changers and the so called national parties simply cannot go alone and they have to tag on with one another for the political survival. Here, Puducherry is the best study case for political fortunes. After losing in Assam and Kerala, there is one state where the Congress has at least a flicker of hope of coming to power – Punjab. The border state will go to the polls in early 2017 with the Akali Dal-BJP Coalition Government facing anti-incumbency factor after being in power for almost a decade. The Grand Old Party should have been a natural beneficiary but it now has to deal with the growing popularity of AAP among many disgruntled voters. Along with Punjab, Uttrakhand and Uttar Pradesh too will go to the polls, but Congress is a marginal player in Uttar Pradesh today while it will face anti-incumbency factor in Uttarakhand. This effectively leaves the party with only Punjab to try and stage some sort of comeback in the face of sagging fortunes.
