India's Congress party rejuvenated by strong election showing

But challenges remain, with leaders saying the party remains weak organisationally

- Nirmala Ganapathy

The despondency that had settled over India's opposition Congress party after stinging electoral defeats at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2014 and 2019 general elections was palpable for much of the last decade.

But now, after a strong showing in the 2024 General Election, the mood within Congress, which managed to win in state-level polls during that period, has turned the most upbeat it has been in the past decade.

At a recent media event, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said to reporters: "You must be surprised at how we did it."

Mr Gandhi was referring to the sense of disbelief in the media and elsewhere as Congress won 99 seats on its own, nearly doubling its seat tally of 52 from the 2019 polls, in defiance of predictions of electoral doom.

In 2014, the party had won just 44 seats.

"The party has been energised at all levels by our strong performance," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, a four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram in the southern state of Kerala, told The Straits Times.

He said "the changed mood was evident" at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party and the Congress Working Committee the highest decision-making body within the party in the capital New Delhi on June 8.

"There is a palpable sense that the party has turned a corner and is moving upwards with confidence," noted Mr Tharoor.

The election results have given the South Asian country a strong opposition after a decade of dominance by Mr Modi and the BJP.