It became a case of sour grapes for the BJP as the politically shrewd H D Deve Gowda refused to play ball despite power seems to be losing from the hands of JD-S.

For BJP, it was a rude reminder of the Mayawati episode in Uttar Pradesh where the BSP denied it power in a similar fashion around a decade back.

"The moral of the story is that we have learnt a lesson and we have to be careful in the future," senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said as his party got yet another shock, this time from Gowda.

B S Yediyurappa might not be exactly the poster boy of the saffron, but his leadership saw the BJP emerging as the single largest party in Karnataka with 79 seats in the 225-member House in the 2004 Assembly elections.

The only satisfaction for the BJP now is that it did not allow Gowda's gameplan.

In fact, Gowda, who used to wear his secularism on his sleeve, had reportedly described as the saddest day of his life when his third son H D Kumaraswamy turned rebel and joined hands with the BJP.