The Samajwadi Party was today set to capture power in Uttar Pradesh routing Mayawati's BSP while the Akali Dal-BJP combine shocked the Congress by retaining its government in Punjab and the Congress managed to hold on to Manipur.
The contest in Uttarakhand has gone to the wires with the BJP and the Congress in a neck and neck race with advantage to the saffron party ruling the state at the moment.
Goa has gone the BJP way after it defeated the ruling Congress convincingly to capture power.
In the battle royale in Hindi heartland, Mulayam Singh-led SP rode on an anti-incumbency wave to dislodge Mayawati looking to win a clear majority on its own. It has already won 36 seats and was ahead in 183 others in the 403-member Assembly.
Ms Mayawati, whose BSP won a majority in the 2007 elections sewing up a rainbow coalition of Dalits, upper castes and Muslims, fared poorly and was reduced to 85 seats. BSP, which won 206 seats last time, has won in 12 seats and was leading in 72 others.
The BJP, which had 51 seats in 2007, has won five seats and was ahead only in 41 seats while the Congress was ahead in 21 and has won four seats. The Congress ally RLD has won one seat and was leading in nine.
Rahul Gandhi, who put up a spirited campaign for the party, appears not to have made much impact but still can take solace from the fact that seats for it have gone up marginally up from 22 earlier.
The shock for the Congress came from Punjab, which it was widely expected to wrest from Akali Dal-BJP combine. The ruling coalition has won 59 seats and was ahead in nine of the 117 seats, 10 more than required simple majority. The Congress has won 44 seats and is leading in two.