Kolkata: A rare blend of grit and pragmatism, Mamata Banerjee was seen as a potential prime minister in the event of the NDA failing to pass muster with voters in the Lok Sabha elections. But that was before Thursday when any such ambition she may have cherished got drowned in cacophonous celebration of the BJP's resounding victory. But for a tweet she made congratulating the "winners", the once obscure milk vendor-turned-slayer of the 34-year-old communist rule in West Bengal lay cocooned at her Kalighat home in south Kolkata through the day.

The sharp-tongued leader made friends across parties and jettisoned them with equal ease during her political career spanning nearly four decades, but probably failed to see which way the wind was blowing this time. Arguably the most strident critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee was courted by regional satraps of all hues--from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to her Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao.