Ranchi, Feb. 27: In one of the most spectacular electoral turnarounds in recent times, the BJP-led NDA has proved pundits wrong and emerged as the largest group in Jharkhand.

It?s not quite there, but the BJP is within sniffing distance at another crack at power. In January, not many believed the alliance would cross double digits.

The NDA with 36 seats and the Congress-JMM-RJD combine with 33 seats have both decided to stake claim to form the government. While the three Ajsu ministers are expected to back the NDA, it is far from clear what the stand of the others would be.

The smaller parties like the Forward Bloc, UGDP, CPI (ML), NCP, which have won at least one seat each, will also play a crucial role in the formation of the government.

Eleven candidates in the others category hold the key to the next government, among them three former ministers in the NDA government ? Sudesh Mahto, Madhu Kora and Joba Manjhi,

Four ministers, however, lost the election, among them Sudarshan Bhagat and Chandramohan Prasad.

The electorate also thumbed down the practice of nominating sons as political heirs. Not just Durga and Hemant Soren, sons of the redoubtable Shibu Soren, but also Roshan Surin, the son of Jharkhand Congress president, Sushila Kerketta, lost by embarrassing margins.

The only son to have emerged unscathed is Binod Singh, the CPI (ML) candidate from Bagodar, son of Mahendra Singh, who was gunned down last month.

In the David vs Goliath battle at Dumka, Stepehen Marandi handed out a humiliating defeat to Hemant Soren, the personal nominee of JMM chief Shibu Soren. The Stephen factor, it would seem, led to the defeat of the other son of the JMM chief, Durga, as well as a JMM rebel in Santhal Pargana, which failed to respond to Soren?s emotional appeal for a chance to govern the state.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Haji Hussain Ansari, lost the Madhupur seat while the leader of the Congress legislature party, Rajendra Singh, too was defeated in Bermo.

The BJP predictably won the urban seats of Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur (East) and Jamshedpur (West). But the party also sprang a surprise by gaining seats in Santhal Pargana and also in areas like Giridih. Former MP Karia Munda and industries minister Ravindra Rai won comfortably.

The Congress, which had contested as many as 33 seats, ended up winning just nine. Laloo Yadav?s RJD, which won just seven seats, appears to have been the major spoiler, having fielded candidates in as many as 51 constituencies.

Among the prominent losers are veteran N.E. Horo of the Jharkhand Party and former Congress leader Sarfaraz Ahmed, who contested as a RJD candidate.

While the BJP is seen to have successfully fought off anti-incumbency, the Congress-JMM alliance is seen to have fallen prey to over-confidence, even arrogance. The election was taken for granted by the ?secular alliance? which believed it would have a cake-walk. Voters have dished out a lesson that they are unlikely to forget in a hurry.