In Kerala and elsewhere, candidates promoted by the party's youngish leader-in-waiting, Rahul Gandhi, did especially badly.
"As an MP, I say she should be the prime minister, " Rahul Gandhi told Indian television.
Rahul Gandhi, of the influential Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and tipped as a future leader, refused to join the cabinet.
Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of the Congress party, on Thursday visited Mr. Singh's wife, sister and two daughters.
Rahul Gandhi, tipped as the future prime minister, still refuses to join the government and get his hands dirty.
Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi also attended the funeral in Bhikhiwind, a town just a few miles from the Pakistan border.
Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi also attended the state funeral in Bhikhiwind, a town just a few miles from the Pakistan border.
More troubling for Congress are signs that Mr Singh's presumed successor as prime minister, Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the party's dominant family, is fumbling too.
Despite revealing scenes like that, "Decoding Rahul Gandhi" is a somewhat labored work, marred by tedious journalistic summaries, not to mention the earnestness and opacity of its subject.
"I think Rahul Gandhi is making the biggest mistake in thinking that political mobilisation and outreach can happen independently of your record in government, " analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta, has said.
Opposition politicians were angered recently after leaked diplomatic cables suggested Rahul Gandhi, widely tipped as a future Indian PM, believed Hindu radicals might pose a greater threat than Islamist militants.
The lower house, or Lok Sabha, was mostly empty when the vote took place, reports said, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi - as well as other senior ministers - prominent among the absentees.
Sonia Gandhi, Rahul's mother, is the current party president.
Mrs Gandhi's son, Rahul, is the most likely choice as the next prime minister, though he did not take a government job in this week's reshuffle.
Congress is already unsure whether Mrs Gandhi's gauche 37-year-old son and presumed successor, Rahul, would be ready to lead the party in an election due by 2009.
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