With 31 seats in its kitty, Ramvilas Paswan's LJP on Sunday emerged the kingmaker in Bihar following a fractured verdict as Congress wrested power after nine years in Haryana while the BJP-JD (U) combine came within the power's reach in a hung Assembly in Jharkhand.
After 15 years in power Lalu Prasad's RJD was in danger of losing power but the party supremo refused to concede defeat and asserted the verdict was for secular parties and would stake claim to form the next government.
The RJD was reduced to 77 in a House of 243 in which the BJP-JD (U) alliance emerged as the single largest combine with 94 seats, 28 seats short of the magic halfway mark.
Maintaining that it was an anti-Lalu verdict, top leaders of BJP-JD (U) combine met in Delhi to take stock of the situation with some senior BJP leaders not ruling out supporting Paswan to form the new government.