In Karnataka, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar faces the challenge of containing tensions with Siddaramaiah’s camp even after the succession battle ended. In Maharashtra, infighting and alliance disputes weakened coordination, while in Bihar the party continues to struggle for an independent identity and a credible state-level leadership.
BY Navin Upadhyay
New Delhi, October 28, 2026: The Congress has failed to win a single seat in the latest Legislative Council elections in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar, exposing the organisational weaknesses and leadership disputes that continue to undermine the party. The biggest setback came in Karnataka, where the ruling Congress lost all four seats to the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance.
In Maharashtra and Bihar, the party also drew a blank in the seats it contested. The elections were held in teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies, whose limited electorates do not represent the wider voting population. Yet the results raise serious questions about the Congress’s ability to retain its traditional support base, coordinate campaigns and build effective state-level leadership.
Karnataka: Power without electoral control
Karnataka presents the most striking contradiction in the Congress’s MLC results. The party is in power, with D.K. Shivakumar now Chief Minister, yet it lost all four Legislative Council seats to the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance. The JD(S) wrested the Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency from Congress, while the BJP retained the other three. The defeat came despite the party’s control of the state government.
The leadership succession battle that dominated arnataka politics has ended ,nut the change of guard has not resolved the factional tensions within the state unit. The relationship between Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah remains strained, with the controversy surrounding an alleged sting video involving the former Chief Minister adding to the mistrust. Siddaramaiah and his son have alleged that the video was fabricated to damage his reputation; the allegations and the circumstances surrounding the recording remain matters for investigation.
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The issue is no longer who will occupy the Chief Minister’s chair. It is whether the Congress can prevent competing camps from undermining the party from within. Disputes over influence, loyalty and the treatment of senior leaders risk diverting attention from governance and organisational work.
MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big states – Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka.
Elections held using ballot papers.
Guess how many seats Congress won? 🧐
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 28, 2026
The MLC results do not prove that factionalism alone caused the defeat. But losing all four seats sends an uncomfortable message to a party that holds power in Karnataka. The BJP and JD(S) coordinated effectively, while the Congress failed to defend its existing position. Shivakumar has promised a review of the results and corrective measures. The challenge now is to turn that response into stronger organisation on the ground.
Maharashtra presents a related problem. The Congress failed to win any of the three seats it contested. In the Pune Teachers’ constituency, sitting MLC Jayant Asgaonkar finished fourth as BJP candidate Kaustubh Gawade won the seat.
The party’s difficulties extend beyond individual candidates. Friction over seat-sharing, candidate selection and coordination has strained relations within the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Disagreements among the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) have complicated efforts to mount a united challenge to the ruling alliance.
The problem is not simply that the Congress lost. It failed to protect seats it had previously held and struggled to turn its alliance arrangements into an effective electoral strategy. In contests involving small, specialised electorates, local networks, candidate credibility and coordination can prove decisive.
The results also raise questions about accountability within the state unit. Repeated electoral setbacks have done little to resolve the divisions that hamper the party’s functioning.
Bihar: No strong face, no independent identity
Bihar exposes a deeper structural weakness. The Congress contested five of the eight MLC seats but won none. In the Darbhanga Teachers’ constituency, Jan Suraaj Party candidate Suresh Prasad Rai defeated former state Congress president and sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha. The result also marked Jan Suraaj’s entry into the Legislative Council.
The Congress continues to struggle to establish an independent political identity in Bihar. Its dependence on the Rashtriya Janata Dal has limited its ability to emerge as a distinct force with its own organisation and leadership. The party lacks a widely recognised state-level face who can command support beyond its established base.
Rahul Gandhi’s national visibility has not translated into a strong local leadership structure. The Congress won only six of the 61 Assembly seats it contested in the 2025 Bihar election. Its latest MLC performance suggests that the organisational problems exposed then remain unresolved.
The party needs more than an alliance strategy. It needs leaders who can build constituencies, nurture local workers and take responsibility for results. Without that foundation, it risks remaining a junior partner whose electoral fortunes depend heavily on the strength of its allies.
The cost of organisational drift
The defeats point to a wider problem within the Congress. The party has struggled to create stable mechanisms for resolving factional disputes, renewing leadership and holding state units accountable. Decisions often depend on negotiations among senior leaders and intervention by the high command. Such arrangements may settle immediate disputes, but they rarely create lasting organisational discipline.
The absence of credible, regular organisational elections and leadership renewal has long been a criticism of the party. Internal elections alone cannot guarantee electoral success. But transparent processes can give emerging leaders a route to authority, reduce dependence on factional patronage and make state units more accountable.
The contrast across the three states is telling. In Karnataka, the Congress has a government but failed to win a single MLC seat. In Maharashtra, factional disputes and weak coordination have hurt its candidates. In Bihar, the party lacks a strong independent identity and a compelling state-level leadership structure.
These are different manifestations of the same challenge: the Congress has struggled to connect its national political messaging with effective local organisation.
The results should not be mistaken for a verdict on the party’s support across the country. Teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies have narrow electorates and distinct voting patterns. Their results cannot, by themselves, predict Assembly or Lok Sabha outcomes.
But the scale of the setback is difficult to ignore. The Congress contested 12 seats across Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar and failed to win any. Four of those seats had previously been held by the party, making the losses a test not only of its ability to expand but also of its capacity to defend existing ground.
The danger is that the leadership will treat each defeat as an isolated episode and move on without addressing the causes. The party needs to resolve internal rivalries, strengthen its state units, improve candidate selection and create a credible path for new leaders to emerge.
Without those changes, its national campaign against the BJP risks remaining stronger in rhetoric than in organisation. The MLC results may not determine the next Assembly elections, but they have exposed a persistent weakness that the Congress can no longer afford to overlook.
