It is the largest and one of the oldest democratically-operating political parties in the world.
The history of the Indian National Congress falls into two distinct eras:
The pre-independence era, when the party was at the forefront of the struggle for independence and was instrumental in the whole of India;
The post-independence era, when the party has enjoyed a prominent place in Indian politics, ruling the country for 48 of the 60 years since independence in 1947. the Indian National Con
gress 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, led by the Nehru-Gandhi family for the most part; major challenges for party leadership have only recently formed . The rise of Mahatma Gandhi's popularity and his Satyagraha art of revolution came Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (the nation's first Prime Minister), Dr. Rajendra Prasad (the nation's first President), Chakravarti Rajgopalachari, Subhash Chander Bose, Dr. Anugraha Narayan Sinha, Jayaprakash Narayan, Jivatram Kripalani . With the already existing nationalistic feeling combined with Gandhi's popularity, the Congress became a forceful and dominant group of people in the country . Jawahar Lal Nehru is the first Prime Minster of india, Indira gandhi is most populer Prime Minister in India . Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, the Indian National Congress party leaders nominated Rajiv Gandhi to be the next Prime Minister. He took office by storm, winning major election victory, and leading the Congress party by winning 411 seats out of 542, in the Indian Parliament. He helped improve the economic, foreign and security policies of the country, during his tenure. Afterward, former treasurer Sitaram Kesri took over the reins of the party and oversaw the Congress support to the United Front governments that ran from 1996 to 1998. During his tenure, several key leaders broke away from the party, and serious infighting broke out among those left. In 1998, Sonia Gandhi finally accepted the post of Congress President, in a move that may have saved the party from extinction. In the 2004 general elections, the Congress alliance won the largest number of seats and got an assurance of support from the Left Front upsetting the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance, which was variously forecast to win outright victory or at least emerge as the largest alliance. Shortly thereafter, Sonia Gandhi was nominated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to be the next Prime Minister. But Sonia Gandhi refused to take the position based on her "inner voice". She backed eminent economist, former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Dr. Manmohan Singh for the post of Prime Minister, and he was sworn-in as Prime Minister on 22 May 2004. Despite strong opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AIADMK, SP, RJD, LJP, TDP, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Indian National Congress won the elections again in 2009, the people gave their mandate to the Congress party and it was the only party to achieve 210 seats in 20 years. The youth supported the Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.The Congress's popularity increased by 61% during the elections.
