Congress won just six seats in Bihar 2025 as the NDA swept 202 constituencies. The party’s weak organisation, failed messaging, and INDIA bloc tensions worsened the defeat.
Brajesh Mishra
The Congress party won just six of the 61 seats it contested in the 2025 Bihar Assembly election, marking one of its poorest performances in the state’s history. Its campaign, centred on allegations of voter-roll manipulation and unemployment-driven discontent, failed to gain traction as the NDA swept to 202 seats. The result throws new uncertainty over Congress’s standing within the INDIA bloc.
Congress entered the 2025 polls after setbacks in Haryana and Maharashtra, struggling with organisational weakness and diminished cadre strength. Seat-sharing tensions with RJD left workers demoralised, while leadership messaging appeared fragmented. Rahul Gandhi's high-profile “vote chori” campaign — alleging mass duplication and manipulation in electoral rolls — dominated media cycles but failed to translate into votes.
Meanwhile, the NDA’s disciplined welfare-driven narrative, parity seat-sharing, and strong presence among women and EBC voters overshadowed Congress’s fragmented outreach.
Rahul Gandhi – led the party’s narrative push, alleging widespread voter-roll fraud.
Bihar Congress leadership – failed to energise the on-ground machinery.
RJD – the dominant partner in the alliance, whose strength overshadowed Congress’s relevance.
ECI – categorically denied allegations of mass voter manipulation.
NDA – benefited from Congress’s organisational collapse and narrative incoherence.
Before results, Rahul Gandhi said: “The same Brazilian model’s photo appears 22 times with different names like Seema and Sweety on voter rolls.”
The claim did not move voters.
While headlines frame this as a state-level defeat, the deeper story is institutional decay. Congress no longer has the organisational presence, cadre depth, or local leadership to influence outcomes in large Hindi-belt states. Its digital strategy remains underdeveloped, its messaging reactive, and its alliances dependent on regional partners who increasingly question Congress’s value-add.
Bihar is not an anomaly — it’s a signal.
The Bihar performance reignites a key INDIA bloc question: should regional parties continue to anchor alliances around Congress? With Congress weakening across multiple states, parties like RJD, TMC, AAP, and DMK may push for decentralised, state-specific strategies in 2026.
For Bihar, Congress’s erosion leaves the opposition thinner, less coordinated, and more dependent on RJD’s already shrinking base.
If a national party continues losing ground in the states that shape India’s political core, how long before its allies begin to outgrow it?
Hindustan Times – Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” pitch falls flat
Indian Express – Congress revives ‘vote chori’ claim
NDTV – Bihar results live
Economic Times – NDA wave reshapes Bihar
Wikipedia – 2025 Bihar legislative election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bihar_Legislative_Assembly_election
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