Cong's 2nd-worst show, no SIRprise despite roll rant

The Congress collapse in Bihar, now poised to be its second-worst performance since 1952, underscores a structural crisis that no longer lends itself to easy explanations or electoral alibis. This is not a routine defeat, it is the culmination of decades of organisational decay, shrinking social coalitions and an absence of political imagination.

The party’s decision to frame the poll campaign around “vote theft” and alleged collusion between the ruling alliance and the election authorities proved to be a miscalculation that neither mobilised new voters nor protected its eroding base.

That the Congress is blaming the Election Commission is hardly surprising. Through the campaign, senior leaders, including LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi, Ashok Geh