Equally significant were the stunning victory of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu, unseating Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi''s whopping 400,000-plus win to retain her Lok Sabha seat in Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. She had won by over 240,000 votes in 2004.

Among all the results, the most sweeping was in West Bengal where the ruling Left Front created history by winning elections for a seventh straight five-year tenure, a feat a Marxist leader said was unparalleled anywhere in the world.

"I think the results are a magnificent victory for secular forces and also a victory for the (Congress-led) United Progressive Alliance (UPA)," Manmohan Singh said here. "It is a magnificent victory for secular forces."

Congress leaders said although they were mauled by the Left in Kerala, the significance of the state elections was that only parties in the UPA or allied to it had won everywhere.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi waved cheerfully at hundreds of supporters outside her 10 Janpath residence here celebrating her victory in Rae Bareli, where a by-election became necessary after she gave up her Lok Sabha seat in March following the office-for-profit row. All her rivals lost their deposits.

But Gandhi and her aides quickly brushed aside suggestions from a group of Congress MPs, including Ajit Jogi, that she should now become prime minister of the UPA government.

In a sign of upcoming turbulence, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the dominant Left group, warned after its spectacular victories in Kerala and West Bengal that it planned to increase its intervention in national politics.

"Overall these results have strengthened the role of the Left in national politics," CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said here. "Since the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, our party has been playing a leading role. We look forward to increased intervention after this election."

His colleague Sitaram Yechury added that his party was not opposed to economic reforms per se. "We are for reforms if these are pro-people and we oppose reforms if they are anti-people."

After rising in the past few sessions, the sensex took a 177-point dive Thursday as news of the Left victories in West Bengal and Kerala became known.

Tamil Nadu will have its first minority government, with the DMK set to take office with the legislative support of the Congress, the CPI-M and the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the PMK.

DMK chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi, 83, would be the chief minister for the fifth time. Asked about his election pledge to provide free colour TVs to the poor, a jubilant Karunanidhi said in Chennai that all campaign promises would be met.

A despondent Jayalalitha, a movie star turned politician, put in her papers and was asked to continue in office until a new government was formed.

In Pondicherry, a union territory nestled within Tamil Nadu, the Congress retained power, winning 10 of the 30 assembly seats. Its allies bagged 10 seats, with the DMK taking seven, PMK two and CPI one.

In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the CPI-M routed the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), winning 98 of the 140 assembly seats, in a stunning reversal of the 2001 fortunes. The UDF had to be satisfied with just 42 seats.

Several UDF ministers and leaders like R. Balakrishna Pillai, T.M. Jacob, K.R Gowriamma and P.K. Kunhalikutty were defeated. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy took moral responsibility for the disaster.

In all probability, CPI-M veteran V.S. Achuthanandan will be chief minister, but the party appeared to be in no hurry to name him.

Assam gave a hung verdict, but the Congress, overcoming earlier fears of a possible defeat, managed to finish on top of a splintered 126-member assembly. It won 53 seats and a tribal ally, the BPPF, bagged 11 seats to give them the magic figure of 64 needed to form a government.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi triumphantly declared: "The people supported us as we did lot of work in Assam during the last five years. This is a positive vote."

In West Bengal, riding on the popularity of the pro-reforms Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and its envious organisational strength, the ruling Left Front crushed the splintered opposition.

Such was the sweeping win that the Left bagged three-fourths of all seats in the 294-member assembly, with the CPI-M itself securing a majority.

Bhattacharya, who won from Jadavpur in south Kolkata with a huge margin, said: "It is not my victory... It is the victory of the people. I thank them."