The Indian National Congress is a broad-based political party in India. The Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.

The Congress is a secular party whose social liberal platform is generally considered on the centre-left of Indian politics.

After India's independence in 1947, the Congress formed the government at center in most instances, and many regional state governments. Congress became India's dominant political party; as of 2015, Congress has headed the central government for 49 years. Although it did not fare well in the last general elections in India in 2014, it remains one of two major, nationwide, political parties in India, along with the right-wing, Hindu nationalist, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). In the 2014 general election, the Congress had its poorest post-independence general election performance, winning only 44 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha.

From 2004 to 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), a coalition of several regional parties, formed the Indian government and was headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

- extracted from Indian National Congress, Wikipedia, as on 19th November 2017