Rudderless, direction less, listless.... that sums up the state of the Congress Party in the run-up to the Warangal bypoll. The party had forfeited the security deposit. It conceded unassailable lead to the TRS and lost lot of ground.

The party workers feel that the party did not have a leader worth the while to steer the troubled ship through turbulent political waters. Despite the fact that the bypolls were crucial to the party, its leaders did not work as a team. From the selection of the candidate to the campaign, there was no coordination among the top honchos of the Congress Party.

The party genuinely felt that there was strong undercurrent of incumbency against the TRS government and thought it could capitalise on that. But, despite all its efforts, it came a cropper by polling barely a lakh and a half votes.

Another factor that did the Congress in is former MP Rajaiah's episode. The death of his daughter in law and her three children in most tragic and suspicious circumstances and Rajaiah himself getting arrested in the case did great damage to the party. Surve Satyanarayana was brought in at the last moment. He could not simply get his act together. The result, is that the party's vote has gone down from 2.69 lakh to 1.55 lakh.