It was celebration time at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 7, Race Course road residence in New Delhi following the Bharatiya Janata Party's stunning victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

No sooner did news of the BJP's imminent victory started trickling in, the think-tank of the party -- Deputy Prime Minster Lal Kishenchand Advani, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, party general secretary Pramod Mahajan and Law Minister Arun Jaitley -- converged at the PM's residence to share the happy moments.

Vajpayee especially lauded the efforts of Mahajan and Jaitley in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.

Journalists were allowed to capture on camera the bonhomie and exchange of sweets among the party stalwarts. Vajpayee himself thrust a piece of laddoo into Naidu's mouth.

In fact, Naidu after briefing reporters, distributed sweets to them.