The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday decimated all opposition in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand while the Congress emerged as a clear winner in Punjab.

With early trends indicating the BJP is likely to cross the 300 mark in the 403 member Assembly, party president Amit Shah’s prophecy that what was to be seen in the results was whether the party would get two-third or three-fourth majority. The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance trailing way behind at 70 and the Bahujan Samaj Party with 22 feature among the also ran.

Trends from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand suggest that there has been no erosion of support for the saffron party in the Hindi heartland state since its phenomenal show in 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the party led by Narendra Modi swept 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats and all the five seats in the hill state.

The Congress has been badly bruised in Uttarakhand, where the BJP seems like winning close to 50 of 70 seats.

Reports of celebrations at offices in New Delhi and Lucknow started coming in even when counting was in early stages.

However, amidst the saffron wave, the Congress has consolation of putting up a stellar show in Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi party trailing a distant second and the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine biting the dust.

The Congress seemed to be holding onto Manipur from where trends were coming slowly. The BJP looks like opening its account in the state in an impressive manner.

Goa, again where the trends are coming too slowly, can be cause for another minor celebration in the Congress camp, with the party having its head ahead over the ruling BJP, whose high profile campaign was led by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. If the trend continues, smaller parties may have a stake in the next state government.

Meanwhile, many leaders came out with brave faces to comment on the likely outcome of the state elections.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said, “it is a monumental setback. We are disappointed with Uttar Pradesh."

The mood was described more vividly by another Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit: "Our party is looking confused."

Meanwhile, BJP leaders were not found wanting in heaping praise on the hard work done by their star campaigners, Prime Minister Modi and President Shah. Yogi Adityanath remarked: "Good work done by the Modi government and (BJP President) Amit Shah's stragegy has paid dividends."

UP, the largest of the states that went to polls, has 403 Assembly seats, followed by Punjab (117), Uttarakhand (70), Manipur (60) and Goa (40)