In the lull between polling and counting, punters rushed to place bets worth Rs. 20,000 crore on what was better - 'pizza' or 'roti'. There was also 'papad' on offer, but it had few takers. Pizza, roti and papad were among the code words bookies used while taking bets so as to avoid the police net.

The 32-member Sikkim Democratic Front legislature party on Monday elected Pawan Kumar Chamling as its leader to pave the way for formation of the government led by him for a record fourth term.

New Congress members of Parliament are now eyeing cabinet berths at the Centre. The established lot that held important ministries in the outgoing government will try hard to retain their positions.

An activist, a former bureaucrat, a legislator who had helped create hundreds of jobs. As a very different Uttar Pradesh went to the polls, a new-age set of leaders emerged winners.

The Election Commission announced results for all the 543 elected seats of the Lok Sabha, giving the United Progressive Alliance 262 seats, 10 short of the halfway mark.

Former BJP leader and Bhartiya Janshakti Party president Uma Bharti met LK Advani and persuaded him to continue leading the alliance as there was no other person of his "stature and clean image" in the NDA.

The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), which had won 31 seats out of 32 in the last assembly elections did one better this time – it picked up all 32, reports Pramod Giri.

Andhra Pradesh gave a clear verdict allowing incumbent YS Rajasekhara Reddy to rule the state for another five years. As the results poured in, showing the Congress cross the magic figure of 148 seats required to form the government in the 294-member assembly, there was jubilation time for the Congress, reports Prasad Nichenametla.

Turning all predictions on their heads, the Congress party swept Rajasthan, winning 20 out of 25 seats in the elections — from four the last time, reports KS Tomar.

With bad news pouring in for it from across the country, there was a consolation prize coming in from Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party marginally improved its tally. The party won 15 seats out of 26, reports Yogesh Joshi.

In an unprecedented result, the Congress won all five seats of Uttarakhand with a sizeable margin on most. On May 13, the state had witnessed 53.96 per cent polling —was up by around 6 per cent from the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, reports HT Correspondent.

Months after the state was divided on religious and regional lines after the Amarnath clashes, voters punished the politicians who stoked the divide, reports Arun Joshi.

The 25 Lok Sabha seats in the eight northeast states have usually gone the Congress’ way. This time, there was one irritant — a minority party United Democratic Front, in Assam gave it a drubbing, reports Rahul Karmakar.

On the eve of counting, the Congress is exuding the quiet confidence of emerging the single largest party and combine to which other groups would throng after the results.

543 candidates' happiness will be 7,527 candidates' misery! That's the number of people who would turn up losers in the elections to Lok Sabha. A total of 8,070 candidates were in the fray for the 543 Lok Sabha seats.