New Delhi:
As votes for the national election were counted, a group of Congress supporters sent out a fervent prayer to the heavens, scribbled on a poster - "Please God, Make Rahul Gandhi PM," "Make Sonia Gandhi's party win".
Outside the Congress office, the supporters performed a "havan", symbolic of the mood in the ruling party, which hoped for nothing short of a miracle.
At the Congress headquarters, there are no laddoos and no celebratory cheers, just an air of resignation. Less than an hour after counting began, shock settled in.
Despite exit polls predicting its defeat, the party has gone all out to make arrangements for the media in its office. AC canopies have been put up for makeshift TV studios. It all looked desolate as the day progressed.
Images of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are missing from the posters that only have the party's symbol, the hand. This was seen as a departure for a party seen as obsessed with its First Family.
Party leaders like Ajay Maken admitted that their campaign had come a cropper, and they had been outmatched by the BJP, which, led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, is expected to post its biggest ever win.
"We could not match up to the resources of the BJP," Mr Maken told NDTV.
Asked whether the party was admitting defeat, he laughed.
"No concession of defeat before 11 am," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
The admission came even before 10:30 a.m, from the party's Satyavrat Chaturvedi.
By then, the party was anticipating a double-digit finish - its lowest tally since independence.
Some party workers refused to be silenced and started raising slogans in the name of Priyanka Gandhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter.