Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee submitted his resignation to President K R Narayanan. But that only added to the confusion, primarily because neither an alternative Government nor the kind of shape it would take was anywhere in sight.Vajpayee said he did not rule out mid-term polls. But significantly, during his 30-minute visit to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he told Narayanan that they expected him to adopt the same methodology in inviting the alternative government as was resorted to in March 1998. That will entail seeking written support from all the coalition allies.

If Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang proved to be the proverbial last straw that ensured the fall of Atal Behari Vajpayee, a few other surprise moves did the Government in on thefloor of the Lok Sabha.

The Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) made a U-turn and voted against the motion, belying last night's assurance by its leader, Mayawati, that the party would abstain from voting. In fact, she also kept Vajpayee in the dark until this morning when she spoke to him.

Saifuddin Soz, who also voted against the motion, also helped bring down the Government. Later, the National Conference MP was seen boasting of his achievement.

By the end of the day, the final tally in the Lok Sabha read: 270 against Vajpayee and 269 in favour. As stunned treasury benches struggled to come to grips with the new reality, the Opposition benches notably the Congress and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM) burst into joy and spontaneous slogan-shouting.

Mayawati and Arif Mohammed Khan later explained the flip-flop. ``We misled the BJP for two reasons: We wanted to keep our cards close to our chest and we wanted to teach the BJP a lesson for trying to split us in Uttar Pradesh,'' they said. Khan evenclaimed that they could have ``met with a mishap'' if they had declared their opposition to the confidence motion last night.

Soz, the other spoilsport for the Government, wanted to know how he was expected to vote for the BJP when his party National Conference shared no ideological base with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Lashing out at NC chief Farooq Abdullah, Soz claimed Farooq was a ``good man at heart'' but was surrounded by ``sycophants and careerists'' and did not know where the real interests of their party lay.

After coming out of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Vajpayee, who was accompanied by Home Minister L K Advani, made it clear that he would not challenge the Speaker's ruling that virtually allowed Orissa CM Giridhar Gamang to cast his vote (prior to the voting in the LS, about 70 minutes were spent on a discussion on whether Gamang should be allowed to vote. While Advani and others from the treasury benches held that he should be debarred, they were opposed by Sharad Pawar, P Shiv Shankar andLaloo Prasad Yadav. Both sides quoted extensively from earlier verdicts). Vajpayee said he had not yet decided on contesting the next Lok Sabha elections. ``I will finalise my views in due course,'' he said, but was interrupted by Advani who asserted that Vajpayee ``is our unquestioned leader and shall certainly contest the next election.''

At 11 am, Vajpayee began his concluding speech but something was amiss. Today he was quite off-key, and even appeared on the defensive. The reason was not far to seek. Even as he was speaking, several opposition members walked over to Mayawati and Arif Mohammed Khan and started shaking hands with them. The word was already out: BSP had decided to side with Congress and ditch BJP at the last moment. At one point P R Kumaramangalam approached Mayawati but was shooed away by the Opposition.

Vajpayee's speech lacked the usual punch; but it touched on all aspects that he was expected to highlight: Pokharan-II, economic resurgence, the Lahore bus ride and the attempts togive the people a sense of security. Making an oblique attack on Jayalalitha, he remarked that had his party decided to compromise, he would not have been seeking a vote of confidence.