A year ago, the Congress party seemed to be galloping towards extinction. The media was awash with obituaries, marking nature’s law that those who couldn’t adapt would perish. As election after election brought dire news. The worst was Uttar Pradesh in March and Gujarat in December, bracketing 2022. The party itself seemed to breathe in the negativity. Victory in tiny Himachal Pradesh appeared like the lamp in hell that only made the ‘darkness visible’. Karnataka, one of India’s major states, turns that perception upside down. Now that the post-victory jockeying for the CM’s post is settled with minimum blood loss, one can look back in totality at the most significant electoral triumph the Congress