INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

The Indian National Congress , abbr. INC, also commonly called the Congress is
one of the two major contemporary political parties in India, the other being the
Bharatiya Janata Party. It is one of the largest and oldest democratically-operating
political parties in the world. Founded by freedom fighter activists in 1885, it
dominated politics nationally for most of the period from 194789. There have been
seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru, serving from
194764 and the most recent being Manmohan Singh, serving from 2004-14. The
party's social liberal platform is largely considered to be on the Centre-left of the
Indian political spectrum.

The INC was primarily founded by a prominent member of the Theosophical Society,
Allan Octavian Hume in 1885, along with Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha. In
the following decades, the Indian National Congress became a pivotal participant in
the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million members and over 70
million participants in its struggle against British colonial rule in India. After
independence in 1947, it became the nation's dominant political party; in the 15
general elections since independence, the Congress has won an outright majority on
six occasions, and has led the ruling coalition a further four times, heading the
central government for a total of 49 years.

MODERN ERA
In the 1998 general elections, the Congress won 141 seats in the Lok Sabha, its
lowest tally up until then. To boost its popularity among the masses and improve the
partys performance in the forthcoming elections, the Congress Party leaders urged
Sonia Gandhi widow of Rajiv Gandhito assume the leadership of the party. She
had previously declined overtures to play an active role in party affairs, as she had
hitherto stayed away from politics. After her election as party leader, a section of
the party which objected to the choice on the basis of her Italian ethnicity, broke
away and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar. The
breakaway faction commanded strong support in the state of Maharashtra, as well
as limited support elsewhere. The remainder continued to be known as the Indian
National Congress.

Sonia Gandhi's appointment failed to have an impact initially; in the snap polls
called by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 1999, the Congress
won 114 seats, its lowest ever tally. However, the leadership structure was not
changed, and the party campaigned strongly in the assembly elections that
followed, tasting considerable success; at one point, the Congress ruled 15 states
nationwide. In the 2004 general election, the Congress forged an alliance with
several regional parties, including the NCP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The party campaigned on a plank of social inclusion and common people's welfare.
This was in contrast to the "India Shining" campaign of the NDA, which sought to
highlight the successes of the NDA government in making India a "modern nation".
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance won 222 seats in the new parliament,
defeating the NDA by a substantial margin. With the support of the communist
front, the Congress was able to muster a majority and form the government.
Despite massive support from within the party, Gandhi declined the post of prime
minister, choosing to appoint Manmohan Singh instead. She, however, retained the
post of party president, as well as heading the National Advisory Council (NAC).

By the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, however, the party had lost much of its popular
support, mainly because of several years of poor economic conditions in the country
and growing discontent over a series of corruption scandals including 2G spectrum
scam and Indian coal allocation scam involving government officials. Congress Party
suffered a stunning loss, securing only 44 seats in the chamber. It was the partys
worst-ever performance in a national election and threw into question if it would
continue to be identified as an officially recognised party in parliament or if its
status would be reduced to that of a recognised group.

ELECTION SYMBOL

As of 2014, the election symbol of the Congress party, as approved by the

Election Commission of India, is the right hand, with its palm-side facing
front. It is usually seen in the centre of an Indian flag, which forms its
background. The fingers of the hand are pressed together. The present hand
symbol was first used by Indira Gandhi as she split from the Congress (R)
faction following the 1977 elections and created the New Congress (I).

The symbol of the original Congress during elections held between 1952 and
1971 was different - it had a symbol of two bullocks with plough. Indira's
Congress(R) during the period of 1971-77 had a cow with a suckling calf as
its election symbol.