For the first time, the Congress is contesting in less than 400 Lok Sabha seats in a parliamentary election. It is contesting 328 seats, 93 lower than the number it contested in 2019. Coalition imperatives are one key reason: the party has given away as many as 101 seats it contested in 2019 to its INDIA bloc partners this time.
The Congress is contesting more seats only in Karnataka and Odisha. In Mizoram, it is contesting the lone seat this time – in 2019, it had backed an independent. In Karnataka, the party is contesting all 28 seats this time as compared to 21 in 2019. Its then ally JD(S) had contested the rest of the seats. In Odisha, it is contesting 20 seats compared to 18 in 2019.
The party would have contested in 330 seats but for the rejection of the nomination of its candidate in Surat and the withdrawal of its candidate in Indore.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress contested 417 seats, which was then the lowest. It contested 440 seats in 2009, 464 in 2014, and 421 in 2019. This time, the party is contesting fewer seats compared to 2019 in as many as 12 states across the country.
Consider the key states where it has given seats to its allies.
The biggest dip is in Uttar Pradesh where the Congress had been in political wilderness for over three and a half decades. The party did not have any major allies in UP in 2019. Up against the BJP and the SP-BSP alliance, the party contested 67 of the state’s 80 seats but could win only one: Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
This time, the Congress is fighting in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and is contesting in only 17 seats.
The second biggest slide is in West Bengal where the party contested 40 of the 42 seats in 2019, winning just two. This time, the party has worked out a tactical understanding with the Left parties and has confined itself to just 14 seats.
The situation in Maharashtra is more complex. The Congress had contested the 2019 elections in alliance with the NCP. But with the entry of Shiv Sena (UBT), the seat sharing had to be three-way. Consequently, the Congress, which had contested in 25 seats last time, is in the fray in 17 seats today.
In nine states, the Congress has parted with one or two seats to INDIA bloc partners despite it being the dominant player in the alliance. Delhi, of course, is a different story where the AAP is the dominant player. The Congress, which contested all seven seats last time, is in the fray in only three: North East Delhi, North West Delhi and Chandni Chowk.
Its alliance with AAP also resulted in the party giving one seat in Haryana (Kurukshetra) and two in Gujarat (Bhavnagar and Bharuch). In Andhra Pradesh, it has given two seats (Araku and Guntur) to the CPM and the CPI.
In Assam, one seat, Dibrugarh, was given to local party Assam Jatiya Parishad.
In Madhya Pradesh, the party gave the Khajuraho seat to the Samajwadi Party but the nomination of the latter’s candidate was rejected after which the Congress and the SP are now backing the candidate of the All India Forward Bloc, also an INDIA bloc member. In Rajasthan, the party gave three seats to allies: Sikar to CPM, Nagaur to the Hanuman Beniwal’s RLP and Banswara to the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP).
The Congress announced its candidate for Banswara but decided to enter into a tie-up with the BAP at the last minute. While it extended support to BAP’s Rajkumar Roat, the Congress’s Arvind Damor, who had already filed his nomination, refused to withdraw and remains in the fray officially as a Congress candidate. But the Congress is backing Roat.
In Tripura, it has given the Tripura East seat to ally CPM. In Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress contested five seats in 2019. This time, it is in the fray in three constituencies, including the Ladakh seat.
Congress has given away as many as 101 seats it contested in 2019 to its INDIA bloc partners this time. (Express Photo by Anil Sharma) 
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