New Delhi: 'Fourth Front' fell flat on its face.
The combine of Lalu, Paswan and Mulayam, which had boasted that the Congress could not come to power without its support, on Saturday night found itself in a shambles, unable to retain even half of the 64 seats won by them in 2004.
The RJD, LJP and SP, which had fought independently despite being in the UPA, were in for worst drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections as per results and trends from all the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, where counting was in progress, on Saturday night.
SP, RJD and LJP -- which had together won 64 seats last time -- were ahead in just 31 seats. Out of the three constituents of the fledgling grouping, SP had got 36, RJD 24and LJP four in 2004.
Having made the "big mistake" of not contesting jointly with Congress, these parties faced reverses in their strongholds of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
In Bihar, the biggest defeat of this election was that of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who once held the Guinness record for winning with the highest margin of 4,24,000 votes in 1977 from Hajipur. LJP had contested eight seats last time and won four.
Paswan had represented the seat eight times -- 1977, 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.