New Delhi: In a paradoxical post-election saga, Congress has hailed its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a historic revival, while simultaneously decrying widespread ‘vote chori’, or ‘vote theft’, that allegedly undermined its gains.
Backed by the INDIA Bloc, the party’s vote share climbed to unprecedented levels in over three decades, yet Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in what they term criminal fraud.
This analysis delves into the data, historical trends, and the brewing political storm, highlighting the irony of a statistical resurgence clashing with claims of systemic manipulation.
According to data, the Congress party’s standalone vote share in 2024 reached 22.34 per cent, a significant increase from 19.49 per cent in 2019. This marks the highest individual share for the party since the early 1990s, signalling a potential shift in voter sentiment amid economic concerns, regional alliances, and anti-incumbency against the BJP.
When aggregated with its INDIA Bloc allies, the collective vote share soared to 40.6 per cent - the strongest performance for a Congress-led alliance since the late 1980s. However, later breakdowns in the data refine these figures slightly.
Congress alone is noted at 21.19 per cent, with the broader INDIA Bloc, referred to as the Congress+ alliance, achieving 41.33 per cent. This minor variance underscores the complexity of alliance dynamics but does not detract from the overall upward trajectory.
To contextualise this revival, consider the historical vote shares of the Congress party from 1989 to 2024, which tell a story of rise, fall, and unexpected resurgence, mirroring the shifting tides of Indian politics.
In 1989, the Congress+ alliance held a formidable 39.53 per cent vote share, but the party lost its grip on power, ushering in the era of coalition governments. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 brought a wave of sympathy, helping Congress return to power with 35.66 per cent, though it was a minority government led by PV Narasimha Rao. That term saw the birth of India’s economic liberalisation, but the party’s popularity waned by 1996, when its vote share dropped to 28.80 per cent. (IANS)
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