The Congress party has set up two new organisational departments to woo the middle class and financially weaker sections in a bid to revive its shrinking vote base.

However the decision may come a little too late in the day and might not have a huge impact on the party’s electoral fortunes less than two years from now, when the next round of general elections take place.

The 2014 elections turned out to be one of the worst electoral defeats for the Congress party, which has governed the country much more than any other party. However, its vote share has been on the decline.

Although it formed the government in 2004 with the help of allies, the vote share of the Congress party reduced from 28.3 per cent to 26.53 per cent. In the next general elections, even as it came to back power with an improved electoral performance, its vote share was 28.9 per cent with just a marginal increase of 0.6 per cent from its vote share in 1999.

In 2014, as it suffered defeat, the vote share took a huge dip with only 19.3 per cent of the votes being polled in favour of the Congress party.

Compare this to the electoral gains made by the BJP. The BJP went out in power in 2004 despite the ‘India Shining’ campaign but its vote share from 1999 went down from 23.75 to only 22.16 in percentage points.

Source – blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/voices/professionals-in-congress-is-it-too-little-and-too-late/