File photo of Rahul GandhiNEW DELHI: The Congress party is experiencing one of its steepest declines in Bihar in recent years, with early trends showing it leading in only five seats. The party won 19 seats in the 2020 assembly elections. This weak performance comes even as its ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, is performing much better and emerging as the strongest pillar of the Mahagathbandhan alliance.If these trends hold, the Bharatiya Janata Party will outperform the JD(U) for a second consecutive election, which could spark demands within the BJP for its own chief ministerial candidate. However, the early numbers suggest a collapse for Congress.Its traditional pockets in Seemanchal, Mithila, and parts of Magadh have weakened significantly. Candidates are trailing even in seats the party considered relatively strong in 2020.BiharAlliance ViewiParty ViewSeats: 243L + WMajority: 122Source: PValueCongress is leading in just five of the 61 seats it contested this year — a conversion rate of barely 10%, down sharply from 2020.Once a dominant force, Congress has now become a peripheral player in Bihar, often relegated to third or fourth place. The party’s last significant leadership presence in the state was under Jagannath Mishra, who served as chief minister in 1990. Since then, organisational erosion and leadership vacuums have steadily shrunk its influence.Despite allegations such as “voter chori” against the Centre and the Election Commission, and campaigning around the Special Intensive Revision drive and the Voter Adhikar Yatra, the Congress struggled to gain momentum on the ground. Early trends indicate that these issues failed to strike a chord with Bihar’s voters.In the 2020 elections, Congress secured 27 seats out of 70 with a conversion rate of 38 per cent, but this time its performance has fallen even further. While the party has focused on national issues, local concerns appear to have overshadowed its message.