WITH MAHA, CONG. LOSES POWER IN ANOTHER STATE

New Delhi, June 30: Battered by a string of electoral reverses, the Congress has now been edged out of power in yet another state with the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, and now governs only Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on its own, and Jharkhand in alliance with the JMM and the RJD.

The development comes as a jolt to the grand old party which earlier this year suffered serial setbacks in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab.

The party lost its government in Punjab and failed to cash in on the perceived anti-incumbency factor against the BJP in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

The Congress had fared poorly in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry in 2021, managing to win as a junior ally to the DMK in Tamil Nadu, where it did not join the government.

The surprise churn in Maharashtra politics pose a big challenge to the party struggling to keep its flock together amid continual desertion by its senior leaders.

Congress leaders are tight-lipped about the developments in Maharashtra, where it was trying to salvage the situation for the MVA government led by Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray by offering the services of the celebrated legal minds in its ranks.

Several prominent leaders, including former Union ministers Ashwani Kumar and R.P.N. Singh, ex-goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and Gujarat Working president Hardik Patel, have quit the party in the last few months. Senior leaders like Jitin Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia, also quit the party.