The Modi-bashing strategy, harping on his undemocratic disposition, underlines the Congress' urgent need to attract partners for what is shaping up to be a battle of alliances.
The Grand Old Party's footprint has shrunk even post-2014. Despite being the main Opposition party, it is a marginal player in the country's biggest states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (Telangana and Andhra) — which together account for 241 seats.
Likewise, it has little or no traction in Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir and has lost ground, perhaps irretrievably, in the North East and Delhi. In effect, it cannot go it alone in more than 50 percent of the seats in the country.
The Congress must put together the better alliance, as it did before the 2004 General Elections, when Sonia Gandhi famously walked across to Ram Vilas Paswan's house for a cup of tea, abandoning the go-it-alone 'Panchmarhi' line once and for all. And therein lies the rub, because Sonia is no longer in charge.
This brings us to the million-dollar question: will leaders of the stature of Sharad Pawar (NCP) and Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) accept Rahul Gandhi as the face of 2019? Nitish Kumar didn't, and not because he nurtured national ambitions. He simply saw Modi as a better bet than Rahul.