- Punjab
With a strong anti-incumbency sentiment gaining ground against the SAD-BJP government in the state, Congress should have been able to capitalise on it. But it has ceded to AAP. ‘Coffee with Captain’ may not be sufficient to put the party back in power.
- Uttarakhand
After surviving a spell of President’s rule and defection to BJP by nine of its MLAs, the party’s Rajya Sabha nomination process exposed the breaks within INC when denied RS aspirant and PCC chief Kishore Upadhyay began issuing dire warnings.
- Tripura
Six of the 10 Congress MLAs have joined All India Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee. The party strength has come down to three from 10. MLA Sudip Roy Barman says people left protesting against the alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal.
- Meghalaya
Defeat of CM Mukul Sangma’s wife in a Lok Sabha by-election, PM Modi’s rally in Shillong and an alleged meeting between D.D. Lapang with BJP’s Ram Madhav and the appointment of Himanta Biswa Sarma to liaise with non-BJP parties in the NE causes alarm.
- Manipur
As many as 25 Congress rebels have served an ultimatum for a cabinet reshuffle and dropping some of the ministers. Unlike MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, the rebels received an audience with the party prez and an assurance that their grievances would be addressed.
- West Bengal
The Pradesh Congress committee took the unusual step of making newly elected MLAs sign a bond and swear unqualified allegiance to the party president and vice-president and not to indulge in anti-party activities. PCC insists it’s voluntary.
- Pondicherry
The decision of Congress high command to foist former minister of state in the PMO, V. Narayanasami, as the CM, although he hadn’t even contested the election, has not gone down well with MLAs who demonstrated against the decision.
- Karnataka
The state party unit’s seemingly unilateral decision to field K.C. Ramamurthy as its third candidate for the RS has put the party under an unpleasant obligation to hunt for extra votes and opened it to allegations of horse-trading.
- Maharashtra
AICC general secretary and veteran Congress leader Gurudas Kamat has resigned and declared his resolve to retire from politics. His camp alleges that he was sidelined and he received no response to his letter from Congress president and vice-president.
- Chhattisgarh
Former CM Ajit Jogi has resigned, reportedly peeved at being denied a Rajya Sabha nomination, and decided to float a new party. Ironically, in 2014 Modi had asked why Congress was persisting with Jogi despite Jogi losing one election after another.
