Click to play videoRanchi: Jharkhand has once again been left with a hung Assembly leaving Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) President Shibu Soren as the kingmaker.
Soren's party surprised pollsters by winning 18 seats even as Congress and its allies emerged as the single largest unit.
But Congress will need Soren to form a government in Ranchi.
The race for the next chief minister of Jharkhand has narrowed down to Soren, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) President and former chief minister Babu Lal Marandi, and Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay of the Congress.
While both Marandi and Soren have already been the occupants of chief minister's post earlier, Sahay is the perennial trier in Jharkhand's politics.
With the fractured mandate Guruji, as Soren is known has already set the ground rules clear.
He wants to be the next chief minister, either with the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party's support.
"No one is untouchable for us. Congress and BJP both are approachable," Soren said in Bokaro on Wednesday after it became clear that no party or alliance was close to the halfway mark.
So how will the next government be formed in Jharkhand?
Along with Marandi's party Congress is at 25 seats, which leaves it 16 short of the halfway mark of 41 MLAs in the 81-member Assembly.
But the magic figure of 41 can be made up by support of the JMM which has 18 seats.
To get itself a cushion Congress may also need support of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
But this arrangement is not going to be easy as Marandi and Soren are sworn enemies and none of them would let the other become the chief minister.
Lalu Prasad, too, won't offer any support to the Congress without getting some kind of assurance on whether the party will support him in Bihar or not.
It is something that the Congress has been reluctant to do.
Meanwhile, Marandi has made it clear that all secular parties would be contacted.
"We will talk to all secular formations. Interests of Jharkhand have to be kept in kind," said Marandi.
On the other side of the political divide is the BJP which has been left ruing.
Despite emerging as the single largest party it's difficult for BJP to have a serious shot at power.
Both Soren and Lalu have more to gain by joining the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance camp as they need Central support to deal with the legal mess they are shrouded in.
"I don’t think we should be forming the government," said senior BJP leader and Hazaribagh MP Yashwant Sinha.
Former chief minister Madhu Koda, face of the biggest corruption scam seen in the country so far, is the other individual who has also lost a lot of bargaining power.
Only one of his candidates, his wife Geeta Koda, won. But the corruption story may just be about to be rewritten all over again.
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