The big picture is almost clear - and it's all about the Congress. The party has swept Arunchal Pradesh, retained Maharashtra and is trying to retain Haryana.
 
By Thursday evening, Congressmen were celebrating, but they had just about reached majority in Maharashtra. And majority eluded them in Haryana.

In Maharashtra, the Congress-NCP combine won 146 seats in the 288-seat Assembly - a little over the halfway mark of 144 seats. But in Haryana, the Congress stopped at 40 seats, five short of the halfway mark.
 
The Congress had expected to have the easiest time in Haryana but it had not accounted for a resurgent INLD, which has made clear it will take a shot at forming government by trying to tap rebels, Independents and BJP MLAs for support.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP gave up early on Thursday conceding defeat and admitting that the Thackeray split and the rise of the MNS had hit the alliance.

The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance also fell prey to both infighting and an identity crisis, analysts said. And Raj Thackeray's MNS may not become the kingmaker some people thought it would, but it has done well.

Both partners in the ruling combine, meanwhile, have performed well, and the big question already is - who shall be the next chief minister of Maharashtra? Among the front runners are Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and the man he succeeded last December, Vilasrao Deshmukh.

In Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress had a clean sweep, it won 42 seats out of 60 seats.