It’s advantage Congress. The Assembly election results have come as a breather for the party, now riddled with scams and charges of corruption. Its electoral triumph in Assam and Kerala will give it a major political boost. The party has also heaved a sigh of relief with the DMK, its powerful southern ally, biting the dust in Tamil Nadu.

A virtual tsunami unleashed by Trinamul Congress chieftain Mamata Banerjee made history here on Friday — dethroning the longest-serving democratically-elected Communist government in the world. The star of Vladimir Lenin — to whom the state’s CPI(M)’s rulers routinely paid public tribute and whose photograph had pride of place in their offices — had well and truly dimmed after 34 long years.

A few hours from now just could be the beginning of a green revolution in West Bengal. The Mamata brigade has already started preparing for what they believe is “inevitable” — a Trinamul Congress victory in the state Assembly elections.

On the eve of the announcement of results of the most crucial Assembly election of her political career, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was a picture of calm. Just opposite was the demeanour of CPI(M) state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose. He was agitated and angry.

In December 1992, Mamata Banerjee, who was then a junior minister in Narsimha Rao government was humiliated, dragged by her hair and then thrown out of the Writers’ Buildings. She had gone to meet the then chief minister Jyoti Basu to seek justice for a deaf and mute girl Deepali Basak who was raped allegedly by a CPI(M) cadre in a Nadia village.

The Trinamool Congress was headed for victory in West Bengal on Friday, with former Marxist leader and Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee saying the "opposition was coming to power".

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, all set to take over the reins of power in West Bengal, on Friday requested party allies Congress and Left opposition Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), to join her government.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi will take the final decision on the party's participation in the new government in West Bengal after discussing with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

Now that all the exit polls have predicted the exit of Left Front, the million-dollar question being asked is: what role will Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee play in the changed circumstances?

Unfazed by the prediction of the Trinamul Congress-Congress alliance’s sweeping victory, Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Tuesday dismissed the exit poll results as “bogus”. Referring to the exit poll results of the Assembly polls of 2001 and 2006, which eventually turned out to be “big jokes”, Mr Bose asserted that the Left Front forming the government for the eighth term is only a matter of time.