"Congress Must Realise It Has A Problem": Prashant Kishor

The Congress failed to make a comeback in Kerala, one of the few states where it has regularly been in power.

The Trinamool Congress's Victory is a message to all opposition parties that "they too can stand up to the BJP and give them a contest", poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who crafted the party's campaign, told NDTV. The Congress, he said, "must realise that it has a problem and then do something about it". The leads in the assembly elections today again indicated that the political space for the country's grand old party is shrinking. It failed to make a comeback in Kerala, one of the few states where it has regularly been in power. Kerala -- known for voting out the incumbent every five years -- has given to a second straight term to the Left government led by Pinarayi Vijayan. In the two other states where it contested in alliance -- Bengal and Tamil Nadu -- the Congress has failed to pull its weight. In Bengal, where it partnered with the Left Front and contested on 92 seats, it is leading only in one. In Tamil Nadu, out of the 25 seats it contested, the Congress is leading in 16.