S ource- The National Interest Author- Sadanand Dhume Is the party over for the Indian National Congress Party? On October 19, Congress received another jolt in what has arguably been its worst year since its founding in British India in 1885. The right-of-center Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turfed out Congress governments in two of India’s most prosperous states: Maharashtra in the west (home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai), and Haryana in the north, a bubbling hub of outsourcing and overpriced real estate bordering Delhi. Both states have long been regarded as Congress strongholds, but in terms of seats in their legislatures—India follows a parliamentary system at both the federal and state levels—the party has slipped to third place. These setbacks follow the mauling Congress suffered at the hands of the BJP in national elections in May. After running India at the head of a coalition for the past decade, Congress now controls less than one-tenth of the seats in