Already gasping for breath in Uttar Pradesh, Congress on Thursday went into coma in the state with party chief Rahul Gandhi set to lose his Amethi parliamentary seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani.

In the 2017 Assembly polls in UP, Congress could win just seven seats and in the 2019 general elections, it was expected to win only UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s  traditional seat of Rae Bareli, setting danger bells ringing for the party. 

This could be Congress’ worst electoral performance in UP since 1977 general election after the Emergency. That time, the Congress had lost all the 85 Lok Sabha seats in UP, including that of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and her son Sanjay Gandhi (Amethi).

What is shocking is that the newly-appointed Congress general secretary in-charge UP (east), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was expected to better the party’s prospects, also failed to deliver. Despite her extensive campaigning in Amethi, she failed to arrest the slide in Congress pocket borough — Amethi. 

While Rahul was set to lose in Amethi, the victory margin of Sonia Gandhi was also dwindling in Rae Bareli.

Besides the Gandhis, no former minister of the UPA regime from UP could perform up to the expectations and were set to come a poor third at most places. 

Disappointed over trailing by a huge margin after 20th round of counting in Fatehpur Sikri, UP Congress president Raj Babbar left the counting centre in a huff. By that time, Babbar had conceded a lead of 1.77 lakh to BJP’s Raj Kumar Chahar.

When questioned by media persons, Babbar chose to be evasive. He was eager to contest from Fatehpur Sikri despite the party brass announcing his candidature from Moradabad. Babbar had filed his papers from Fatehpur Sikri on the last day of filing of nominations.