The Congress in Odisha has flattered to deceive, yet again. With two of the four rounds of polling over, the grand old party has all but abandoned its hopes of coming back to power in the state after nearly two decades. 

Worse still, it is in serious danger of being relegated to the third position after the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the BJP – an unenviable position from which it has not been able to find its way back to power in any state so far.
In hindsight, it is hard to believe that the Congress was on a high just a month ago. It state unit chief, Niranjan Patnaik, appeared to have asserted his authority in the party with his conscious efforts to carry everyone along. Dissidence, the perennial bugbear of the Congress in Odisha, was down to a minimum. The morale of the party cadres was high after the victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in December.