The massive wave may have been brought about by a rare combination of upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and MBCs, but it gathered greater force as sections of Yadavs and Muslims -- Lalu's traditional vote bank -- either were too disillusioned to turn to vote up in great numbers, time and yoked itself to Lalu Prasad, got singed by its association. Its tally came down by one seat to nine. And Paswan suffered a near rout, managing just 10, as against its impressive tally of 29 in the February polls.

The man of the moment is, of course, Nitish Kumar. He will be sworn-in as chief minister on Thursday in Patna's Gandhi Maidan in what NDA has planned to be a grand public show of strength. Negotiations between the JD( and the BJP were on over power-sharing -- in particular on whether Nitish should have BJP chief, Sushil Modi, as his deputy.

The result, a clear setback to the UPA, has revived an NDA that was licking its wound since the 'unexpected' defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. However, the Bihar verdict is unlikely to create a life-threatening crisis for the UPA, or for that matter, even a major realignment of forces that alters the numbers game in the Lok Sabha. Rather, chances are that the fear a resurgent NDA may help Congress to rally the UPA ranks, and persuade the Left to lower the ante.

In fact, the verdict may bring some comfort to Congress. Lalu, who insisted on having his in the coalition, is expected to be chastened the drubbing. With the loss of his home base, up against formidable rivals, facing a plethora of court cases, railway minister may end up losing some of the trademark swagger.