Except for a brief, three-minute press conference where she tried her best to remain poised in the face of abject defeat, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee remained indoors. A pall of gloom descended at her Kalighat residence and office as the news poured in.

At the end of the day, the party had just managed to get 29 seats, down from the 60 it held in the outgoing Assembly. The only moments of relief came when two of the party’s winners — Sovandeb Chattopadhyay (Rashbehari) and Arup Biswas (Tollygunge) — came to meet Didi, followed by a motley group of supporters.

‘‘I congratulate the Congress and CPI(M) for their good performance. I am also thankful to the Centre, State Government and the Election Commission for good governance. As for our party, we need to investigate the results and plan for tomorrow,’’ a quiet Mamata told mediapersons.

With the morale down, party leaders began looking for scapegoats. ‘‘We obviously lacked the CPI(M)’s organisational skills. We cannot fight the party with a strategy of four weeks. We need a 10-year programme. We need to support the ruling party where required since our own credibility is at stake,’’ said Dinesh Trivedi, Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha member.

The Congress, which spurned Didi’s efforts at forming a Mahajot, fared no better. At 21 seats, the party’s tally was down by five.

‘‘We were over-obsessed with Mahajot. Also, the CPI(M)’s campaign strategy was much better than ours,’’ said Pradip Bhattacharya, WBPCC leader.

Small surprise then that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was found to be lamenting the dwindling strength of the Opposition.

... contd.