New Delhi: Taking cricket as an example, Congress did not perform well in the game in Kerala. After finally showing some resilience after posting its first victory in Telangana in December 2023 and a commendable performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party’s performance took a nosedive, giving up individually winnable turf and registering poor results in alliances.Kerala has come as a relief to the Congress which seemed to have lost its winning knack. Haryana and Maharashtra could have won but the results fell far short.In UP, the Congress fared poorly in the North Carolina alliance in J&K and under the MVA in Maharashtra, recording its lowest ever vote share in the state. Jharkhand, ably managed by senior partner JMM, is the only saving grace.Also Read| Assembly election results 2026: Vijay wave, Bengal breakthrough, Kerala reset – 10 takeawaysIn this context, a major victory in Kerala holds special significance for the Congress, especially since the Left stronghold is seen as a close contest. But offsetting the effect in Kerala was the devastating blow in Assam.A decade after losing power in its erstwhile stronghold, a confident revival attempt to put MP Gaurav Gogoi at the helm has failed.The party seems to have no response to the religious polarization triggered by the BJP. The Congress’s continued moribund state in West Bengal and its dismal performance in Tamil Nadu as a junior ally of the DMK suggest that the Congress has not made much progress since the emergence of the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party devastated it across the country.The 2024 polls represent an extremely challenging election and the resilience shown in the polls gives the party hope for the future. But the subsequent elections disappointed Congress cadres. Despite the lone victory, the 2026 results revealed a paralyzing stagnation.For the Congress, the challenges remain after May 2014 – it was badly beaten in the heartland and the BJP succeeded in painting it with a “Muslim brush”. Going forward, the Congress must find a way to counter the BJP in the northern bipolar states, except Gujarat and Goa.In December 2018, the party showed courage by sweeping across Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan.But five years later, they lost it. A major hurdle facing the Congress is the BJP’s unbridled push for polarization, even in states with small Muslim populations such as Chhattisgarh, MP, and Gujarat. Pushed to the edge, the party did break the mold during the transition.Also Read| India’s footprint disappears from Bharat map as allies flounder in West Bengal and Tamil NaduThe Bharat Jodo Yatra was a bold attempt to neutralize “polarization”, with Rahul Gandhi traveling across the country to target the BJP’s communalism and marginalization of poor communities. This pilgrimage has a direct impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.With its accounts confiscated, its ranks weakened by defections, the campaign dominated by Ayodhya, and related issues, the Congress and Bloc India allies still managed to keep the BJP in limbo. The Congress won a large number of seats in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and its allies in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra. It is doing well in its turf of Karnataka and southern Telangana.But just when the Congress thought religious mobilization had run its course, it lost the Haryana and Maharashtra polls to mismanagement.Since then, it has faced a renewed push for polarization by the BJP, which a mandated Election Commission chairman, poor campaign planning and lax allies have not helped.With the BJP winning new territories, adding to its rock-solid northern and western states, the Congress must win over the BJP’s heartland hegemony if it has to stand a chance in the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.