Atal Behari Vajpayee: Why is this man smiling? And why is he flashing the V sign? Vajpayee's has a real problem; despite the halo that surrounds him and popularity supposedly peaking after Kargil, he didn't manage to get a single extra seat for his party. For those who have forgotten, he still belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, that has seen in seat share in the Lok Sabha stagnate. In fact, the new equation means that the allies in the NDA will run the Government. And when they include the likes of Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, and George Fernandes, our Prime Minister should be quaking in his juttees. And, whenever Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu sneezes, Vajpayee will have to have a truckload of handkerchiefs airlifted to Hyderabad, preferably from Pakistan.

Sonia Gandhi: Our Lady of 10 Janpath has achieved what most political observers would have considered the impossible. She has managed to get her party 30 seats less than it got under the astute leadership of her predecessor Sitaram Kesri. Despite her shrieking histrionically over the sacrifices her family had made, she's probably lost her only shot at power at the Centre. Congressman, given their curved spines from years of stooping, will not try and stage a coup because they can't live without The Family; it's like a comforter for an infant. But what they are certain to do is not change. The best the party can now hope for is that elections are not held for another couple of years at least, so that the average voter gets so irritated with the ruling coalition that he or she votes for the Congress by default.

Laloo Prasad Yadav: The Raja of Bihar has definitely been dethroned. His most embarrassing experience would have been the defeat at the hands of Sharad Yadav in the Yadav bastion of Madhepura. Believe it or not, even Sharad didn't think he would win and he actually went on a hunger strike trying to force the Election Commission into a repoll even before the results were announced. Laloo now faces Assembly elections within the next three months and then he could just sit back and watch the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP fight among themselves over the chief ministership of the State.

Manmohan Singh: The wannabe PM couldn't become an MP. At least, not in the Lok Sabha. In fact, Singh was so confident of securing South Delhi that he sanctimoniously announced that he would resign his Rajya Sabha seat if he lost. However, as soon as the results were declared, Singh took refuge in the politician's last resort - blamed the Press for misquoting him. Obviously, our liberalisation mahatma has been cast aside by his disciples. They seem to have learnt their lesson. In fact, another former Finance Minister P Chidambaram ended up third in his constituency.

Sharad Pawar: He thought that he would emerge as the power to reckon with in Maharashtra. Instead, his party and his ego have been reduced to nothing. Yes, he managed to hold on to the Baramati seat and Purno A Sangma to Tura, but that hasn't prevented them from suddenly becoming non-entities on the Indian political scene. Unless they do what all good non-entities do, join the NDA.