New Delhi, Dec 25 : Ruling Congress grappled with major challenges in the form of terror attacks across the country and electoral defeat in Karnataka in 2008 but the party ended the year on a happy note emerging clear victor in three of the five states that went to assembly polls.

But will the party begin 2009, the year of Lok Sabha elections; in the manner it ended 2008? This is the key question for the ruling party as it steps in the New Year.

2008 has been by all accounts a challenging year for Congress, notwithstanding the happy tidings from Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram towards the end.

This was because the Left parties, key outside supporters for over four years, withdrew support to the Manomhan Singh government on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Mumbai terror strikes brought fresh challenges for the party as main opposition BJP snapped away at its internal security handling.

Electoral victories for Congress in Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram were unexpected to a sizable section of the party.

However, the year started on a bad note for Congress with party chief Sonia Gandhi being admitted to a local hospital following a chest infection on the midnight of December 31.

Gandhi's illness had come close on the heels of the party's electoral debacle in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. The Congress chief had campaigned vigorously in the BJP-run state which saw a controversy over her "merchants of death" remark hurled apparently at Chief Minister Narendra Modi.