The Congress is confronting its most serious crisis in its electoral history since 1951. Since the 2019 debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, the second in a row, it has not won a majority in a single state assembly election on its own. From 400 plus MPs in Lok Sabha in 1984, the current number of parliamentarians including the Rajya Sabha ones, is just 84 out of a total of 793. Never before in the history of the party, have, they had this low of fewer than 100 seats in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In all the states across India, Congress has 695 MLAs while the BJP which has almost double that with 1383 MLAs. It's not surprising since they didn't win even one of the 5 states that saw elections recently — Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur

What's exacerbating the problem is the constant exit of high-profile leaders, the most recent is Ghulam Nabi Azad but there has been a flood- Jyotiraditya Scindia, RPN Singh, Sushmita Dev, Sunil Jakhar are just some of the leaders who have left for either the BJP or because they see no future in the Grand old party. The exits and public outbursts have become a major problem for the party trying to invent itself with a Bharat Jodo Yatra. Rahul Gandhi will walk from Southern India to the North, in an effort to galvanise people against the BJP but it's more of a non-political effort. The yatra will come also in the midst of the Congress' organisational elections and the Congress President will be announced in October. But in this episode, Sunetra Choudhury looks at the larger challenges that the new President faces. Speaking to the author and journalist Rasheed Kidwai, she distils Congress' problems to five major factors- Human Resources, Leadership Confusion, Communication, Lack of modern tools and finally, Funding. Listen for more

If there's one person who has challenged the might of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the last year, it's West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The third time chief minister isn't just satisfied at having beaten the BJP severely in the state in the 2021 elections. The 67-year-old hasn't forgotten the way she was taunted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the entire union cabinet which camped in the state ahead of the elections. On Independence day, Banerjee said that Modi and the BJP will not be returning to power in 2024. It's an assertion that comes after lots of activity in the past few weeks and months. Two of her closest aides Anubrata Mondal and Partha Chatterjee have been arrested by enforcement agencies on corruption charges but like other opposition leaders, Banerjee says it's a clear sign that the BJP is running scared of losing elections and that's why they are targeting her key men and she's not afraid. In this episode, we look at the various aspects of the Trinamool Congress versus Bhartiya Janata Party fight. The BJP may not have won Bengal, but they did manage to win 77 seats last year, which was a major jump from the 3 seats they held in the previous election. The BJP also won 18 of the 42 seats in the 2019 elections and if they improve this in 2024, it will be a major stepping stone towards the central rule. So, who's right- Mamata or Modi? We look at what the two have in common (you'd be surprised at how much they share) and where key differences lie. We also look at how Hindutva was tweaked in Bengal and now how it's playing out nationally. And finally, we look at the role of Abhishek Banerjee, her nephew and the party's general secretary with his national ambition.

Journalist and author of Mamata: Beyond 2021 (https://www.amazon.in/MAMATA-Beyond-2021-Jayanta-Ghosal/dp/9354894933) Jayanta Ghoshal and senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, Neelanjan Sircar, join HT's Sunetra Choudhury in this episode.

It's been a week since Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called it quits on his long-standing ally, the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP). It's a game-changing moment in politics if ever there was one. That's because the state is extremely political and Kumar's entry into the opposition camp can completely change the game. Or is that just hype?

In this episode, host Sunetra Choudhury who has reported on the state since Kumar first came to power in 2005, just focuses on the three principal players in this entire drama- Nitish Kumar, RJD leader and now deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and their rival, the BJP. The post-mortem finds that out of all three, it is Tejashwi Yadav who stands to be the biggest gainer in this entire episode. He was just 28 when he was taken by surprise and jilted by Nitish Kumar. Five years later, he is far from being just his father's son. Yadav is now the party with the largest numbers in the state and he's got here, without the baggage of having to entice breakaways from the ruling party.

Nitish Kumar has switched sides before but is the morality of being a party-hopper, really the most important point in this episode? Maybe not, considering that it comes so soon after the BJP's coup in Maharashtra. What's more pertinent is the manner in which the opposition has used it to launch the 2024 campaign. It is unclear if Kumar will be the opposition's face against Narendra Modi and if that will be a successful bid. However, the 2024 battle has certainly become much more interesting now.

Finally, the takeaways for India's ruling party. The episode finds that just a month before the switch, party president JP Nadda had said this about BJP versus regional parties: ``We are such a party that is ideology-based, standing on ideological grounds. I always say this to people, if there was no ideology then we couldn’t have fought this huge fight. Everyone is sold out, and destroyed and those who haven’t will be destroyed. There will be one and only BJP that will exist. There is no such national party to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in today’s date. There’s no national party of any ideology left.'' These words have struck deep into the hearts of many party leaders. As Sunetra notes in the podcast, the BJP has been successful to reducing the Congress to a marginal player. So, will it do the same to marginal parties too?

In this episode, Sunetra is joined by HCU Professor Tanweer Fazal and journalist Prakash K Rai

Who do you think is the BJP’s big challenger in the next round of elections? Is it Congress or has AAP completely replaced them as challengers? In this latest episode, Sunetra speaks to the man who’s leading the AAP campaign in the election-headed states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Sandeep Pathak. Pathak epitomises how AAP is different. But are they making their rivals run scared? Find out in this episode which also features political scientists Sanjay Kumar of CSDS and Ashutosh Kumar of Panjab University.

When Amit Shah said recently that the BJP would be in power for the next 30-40 years, was it political rhetoric or is there truth to what he said?

It is already in power in 19 out of 28 states and is also heading towards wins in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Their critics say it is all about money and power but that is just one side of the story. In this episode, HT’s political editor Sunetra Choudhury traces their strategy with the help of Bhupendra Yadav, Key minister and strategist. From ideology to Modi Magic, it’s down to 5 key factors.

What do Droupadi Murmu, Pratibha Patil and APJ Abdul Kalam have in common apart from being President of India? Find out in this week's episode of First Voice, Last Word which covers this moment of history as Rashtrapati Bhawan sees a tribal woman take the highest office in the land. In her inaugural speech, Murmu says she represents the marginalised in the country who find it challenging to even get primary education. But there's also another group of people that Murmu is a powerful mascot for. Find out how the country's first citizen spoke openly about depression and the crippling effect of bereavement after the death of her children. How did she overcome it?

We also speak to Sandeep Mishra, Group Editor, Odisha Bytes who tells us how Murmu may be the BJP's achievement ahead of the 2024 elections.

2022 marks the year that Narendra Modi completes 20 years in public office and eight years as Prime Minister. On our flagship political podcast First Voice, Last Word, we take a look at how PM Modi has created a new lexicon, that has seeped into everyday language. From terms like Khan Market gang to ecosystem, labarthi, tukde-tukde gang, urban naxals, andolan jeevi. What is the impact of this new language that is being used not just by members of the Modi government but also being subverted by others? We also deal with a basic question- is this unique to Narendra Modi's tenure or do all strong leaders leave behind a legacy of buzzwords? Tune in for all these answers!

In this weekly podcast on Indian politics. host Sunetra Choudhury, National Political Affairs Editor for Hindustan Times talks about her 2 decades of experience and realization that politics is often like reality TV where you see full of dramatic personalities making strategic moves. So, get ready as we take you inside these corridors of power to understand what the netas are talking about and how their moves ripple down to us. This is a Hindustan Times podcast, produced by HT Smartcast.