The party would have preferred, therefore, to put up a better show in Maharashtra and Haryana. But, despite being ahead of the others in the former along with its partner, the NCP, the inability of the ruling alliance to get a majority on its own showed that its popular appeal was only marginally better than the opposition's. Clearly, if the MNS had not cut into the Shiv Sena-BJP's base of support, as in the parliamentary polls, the Congress-NCP combine would have had a tougher time to make it to the winning post.

Even now, it will need the support of outsiders, probably some of the rebels, to form a government. As such, it will continue to remain under pressure to perform. But considering that the outgoing government's failures on this front were evidently responsible for the ruling group's lacklustre show, few in the Congress-NCP will be in a mood of elation despite the third successive victory.

For the Congress, the question will again arise about the choice of Ashok Chavan as chief minister. Since he was unable to boost the party's prospects to the desirable extent, the issue of a successor, perhaps Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, is bound to come up, creating further dissensions in the Congress camp. The only consolation for it is that the NCP continues to lag behind although this does not mean that it will not raise the question of sharing the chief minister's position by rotation.

However, the NCP's position is a far cry from what it was in 2004 when it was ahead of the Congress in terms of seats, winning 71 against the Congress's 68. Now, the decline in its fortunes, which was apparent in the Lok Sabha contest, when the NCP won eight seats against the Congress's 17, is continuing since it has fallen well behind its senior partner.

If the Congress's success is marred by a number of ifs and buts, the scene is far more bleak for its principal opponent, the Shiv Sena-BJP. Once again, the saffron group has had to concede defeat to confirm the perception that it can never really hope to reach the corridors of power in the foreseeable future.

The fall guy for it is obviously Raj Thackeray, whose party has now got into double digits in the assembly. It is also undeniable that the intra-family battles between uncle Balasaheb and his son, Uddhav, on one side, and Raj on the other are a godsend for the Congress-NCP.

But this explanation does not answer the question: what next for the Shiv Sena-BJP? Since Raj is more charismatic than Uddhav, as Sharad Pawar has said, the Shiv Sena's future will become dimmer in the coming years, especially because Balasaheb is now a shadow of his former fiery self.

The BJP, too, does not seem to have recovered from the death of Pramod Mahajan since neither Gopinath Munde nor Nitin Gadkari seems capable of providing inspirational leadership.

The disarray in the party's central level is an additional disadvantage since both L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh are on their way out with no one yet a recognized front-runner who is ready to take their place. The rumours that Gadkari may replace Rajnath Singh as the party president at the national level may die down after the latest Maharashtra results.

More than Maharashtra, however, it is the outcome in Haryana which will worry the Congress. The reason is that Om Prakash Chautala has come out of nowhere to grab nearly one-third of the assembly seats to show that no one can be written off in politics. The crowds which the INLD leader was drawing at his rallies evidently carried a message.

The BJP will be regretting the fact of having broken with Chautala because it felt that there was no hope for him. Now, it has to be content with a lowly fourth place in the assembly.

On his part, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will wonder whether he read more into the Congress's sweeping 9-1 victory in the parliamentary elections than what was warranted. His party will form the government, of course, but the huge majority of 67 seats out of 90 in 2005 has dwindled.

His ploy, therefore, in bringing the election forward hasn't worked although it is also possible that the Congress would have fared even more poorly if he had waited for another year since Hooda had noted the prevalence of an anti-incumbency mood. (IPA)