Many young Congress voters of Gujarat and Punjab told rediff.com that they see a great future ahead also because the resistance against the dynasty factor in Indian politics has failed. Rahul has diluted the stigma of dynastic politics by not joining the government and taking up party work instead.

So many sons and daughters of political leaders of various parties have been elected in the process that the opposition to dynastic politics has lost steam. Now onward one can't even think of any poor boy or girl without powerful connections can ever dream of winning an election to the state assembly or the Lok Sabha. It will be difficult to win even the Youth Congress president's post without money. That will be a rarity, now.

When we talk of the youth factor these days, any discussion on ideology or limits to spending money to win election is regarded as out of fashion. Thirtyfour-year old Congress candidate Manicka Tagore's win over veteran Vaiko, 65, in Virudhunagar is one such instance where the DMK spent millions of rupees to make sure that Vaiko was defeated.

Former chief vigilance commissioner N Vittal has written a column on factors that played the most decisive role in this election. He writes, 'The first is the enormous role and clout of money power.' He says, 'It reflected the reality that democracy in our country, which has perhaps the largest population of the poor, has become an exclusive game in which only the rich with tonnes of money can participate. Especially in the two critical states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, there were a lot of allegations about the flaunting of money power to bribe voters and entice those in the opposite camp.'

He said the second factor that played a part is the role of the family. He says as a feudal society with a claim to modernity, we Indians are very comfortable with dynasties and families. The third factor he says is that the anti-incumbency factor has not worked.

In the three key states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, there were 'spoiler' parties which took away a chunk of the anti-incumbency vote that should have gone to the established opposition.

Similarly, Election Commissioner Dr S Y Quraishi agreed in an interview to rediff.com that one of the biggest weaknesses of Indian election is the money factor.

In the last two years, Rahul Gandhi was confronted many times with such real issues. In one such meeting, the question was debated as to what do you do when 10 goons of Mayawati's party or Mulayam Singh's SP are dominating the polling booth? Rahul Gandhi received many opinions from his colleagues, like, 'Congressmen can't fight them in the same coin. We will have to keep patience till the times change.' But, someone from his team also argued that "we should have 11 goons to scare them."

Rahul Gandhi has not answered the crucial issue yet: how will he face this Gandhian dilemma of keeping clean and yet reaching his goal? He keeps quotes from Mahatma Gandhi with him at all times on his desk.

But, in 2009, he has delayed facing the awkward moment. Precisely for this reason, this election is a turning point for the Congress.

And, in between all this churning within the Congress, success has arrived which is not just surprising and stunning but may prove to be a splendid delusion if not internalised correctly.