Most senior leaders were not present at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi on the day of the outcome of poll results in five states. The leaders present at the headquarters stayed glued to television sets throughout the day, analysing results.
As definite trends emerged of a Congress lead in certain states, bouquets of flowers were seen distributed within the office.
When rediff.com went to meet All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for Kerala, Madhusudan Mistry, he was following the developments of the poll results in Kerala on TV. He switched between Malayalam channels, even though he does not understand the language.
"I just read the numbers," he said.
Though the majority is minimal, Mistry said that a 'majority is a majority.'
"It is a pre-poll alliance and the United Democratic Front will form government. In this case, there at least is a majority. There have been minority governments as well," Mistry said.
When asked whether he expected such a close call, Mistry said, "Frankly speaking, no. We were expecting more than 80 seats at least."
When asked what he thought was the reason for such a close fight, Mistry said, "We will have to analyse the behaviour of the constituencies to understand that. It is too early to say anything. I had expected the UDF to win without much of a problem. We will definitely study what happened, both at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee level and the district levels."
Most of the leaders arriving at the Congress headquarters seemed confident of forming the government in Kerala.
"We are not much bothered as we are confident of people voting for the alliance," a leader, who did not wish to be named, said outside the headquarters.
Before the results had come out, Congress leader Ved Prakash had told rediff.com, "We are confident of forming government in all five states. For the third consecutive time, Tarun Gogoi will come into power. People in Assam want stability."
When asked if the 2G scandal had any effect on the people's confidence in the alliance in Tamil Nadu, Prakash had said, "Yes, the 2G scandal has clearly affected the DMK. It remains to be seen what the final outcome will be. In Kerala, it is neck to neck and the Congress alliance has the edge."
Talking about Mamta Bannerjee's landslide victory in West Bengal, Congress MP RC Khuntia said that he congratulated her with all his heart.
Allaying fears that the Trinamool Congress would ignore the Congress once they come into power, Khuntia said, "See, there are no two opinions about who is going to be the CM in Bengal. Congress's main aim was to end the CPI-M rule, which has not contributed towards any development in the state in the past 34 years. We are happy at being a part of the alliance."
