By Adam Mynott BBC correspondent, Delhi

In the recent Indian elections, the Congress Party overturned every pre-poll prediction. It was a triumph for their leader, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, particularly as she had been mercilessly attacked during the campaign by her opponents because of her foreign origin.

Early trends from the counting of ballots indicated an election upset

But Mrs Gandhi had no intention of becoming prime minister.

It all began with just the faintest ripple on the pond.

Wax seals on the locks of the strong-room at the election counting office in Delhi had been broken, the key had been turned in the padlock, and a dozen election officials sweating in 100-plus degree temperatures had heaved the electronic voting machines onto tables in the heavily guarded counting arena.

At the press of a button, they started to spill out their digital secrets. Here in the capital, Congress were doing far, far better than anyone had expected.

I phoned the BBC Bureau in Delhi, and above the cacophony of party agents, election officials and journalists, I shouted into my mobile: "There's a surprise going on here."

Sanjoy in the office shouted back that there were surprises going on all over India.

Those ripples - now waves - were spreading out across the whole of this vast country, unleashing one of the most extraordinary political dramas ever in India.

Against the odds

It is difficult now - just a matter of days later - to recall the exact sequence of events that followed. So much happened so quickly.

But one thing seemed certain: the architect of the Congress Party triumph, Sonia Gandhi, would become prime minister.

Sonia Gandhi lent her support to prime minister-designate 71-year-old Manmohan Singh

She had taken volley after volley of the most unpleasant and offensive abuse during the campaign.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - the ousted governing party - had wheeled out some of their most accomplished, acid-tongued demagogues to attack her. Not her politics or her record, but the woman herself, and her Italian origins.

Sonia Gandhi had remained calm and resolute and she had won the election in the face of this vitriol.

So it was against this background that she made her first appearance at the Presidential Palace in Delhi the following day, we thought, to accept the request to form a government.

She emerged after a 20 minute meeting with President Abdul Kalam and stepped in front of a forest of microphones that reporters had planted outside.

It was then that the doubts began.

Stunned

She did not look like a woman about to take control of the levers of power. Her talk was of another meeting with the president and further negotiations with alliance partners to ensure a majority in parliament.

Congress Party supporters protest against Mrs Gandhi's decision

She clambered back into the white ambassadorial car and as she was driven away down Rajpath - the wide avenue in front of the palace - the cohort of reporters stared at each other in amazement.

At Congress Party headquarters about a mile away, ever-growing numbers of supporters had been whooping and cheering, and waving flags and posters non-stop for three days. But here, the whispers started to circulate.

Could it be true? Was their adored leader having second thoughts?

I am in awe of the energy and devotion of some of the Congress faithful.

Govinder is one of them. It had taken him 12 hours on an array of bicycles, cars, buses and trains to get to Delhi from his home in Uttar Pradesh.

Another enduring image was of a man standing on top of a car holding a pistol against his head

He wanted to be in his capital city for the moment that his leader Sonia-ji was sworn in as prime minister.

In the meantime he saw it as his job to lead a group of fanatics at party headquarters in a ceaseless inferno of cheering and shouting. He paused only briefly at night to grab a couple of hours sleep on the pavement, lying on a campaign poster with a kerbstone as a pillow.

The frenzy he erupted into when he was told that Sonia-ji did not want to be prime minister was something to behold.

Shocking scenes

Another enduring image was of a man - a former MP - standing on top of a car holding a pistol against his head, declaring he would kill himself if Sonia did not become prime minister.

Congress Party supporters crowded around a burning effigy of Sushma Swaraj, leader of the outgoing BJP

I have not seen him since, but I am told he survived. Apparently he discharged his weapon, but missed and injured his leg.

The fevered madness of the past few days is diminishing. Crowds who vowed they would never leave the street outside Congress HQ until Sonia Gandhi became leader have faced facts, packed up their belongings and headed home.

The intense political activity is now all about who gets what cabinet post in the new government, and I am left dazed.

I ponder on how a woman almost single-handedly led her party to victory in the world's largest democracy, saying all along that she had no desire to be prime minister.

She apparently came within a whisker of taking the job, and then decided not to.

The real reasons for that decision will probably only be known when Sonia Gandhi writes her autobiography.

But out of this chaos and crisis her enemies have been humbled and scattered, and she has emerged the unchallenged champion of all India - a true Gandhi.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 22 May, 2004 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.