BJP, Cong-SP alliance confident about UP victory

Lucknow: Leaders of the BJP and the SP-Congress combine today exuded confidence about victory of their respective party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, a day after exit poll results suggested the saffron party will have an edge over rivals.

BJP leaders said they would get a “two-third majority” in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly. The SP sought to pick holes in the surveys, terming these as “nonsensical” and “influenced”.

Dismissing the exit poll results, the Congress said that the poll outcome tomorrow will be in its favour. The counting of votes for assembly polls held in five states including Uttar Pradesh will take place tomorrow.

“The surveys have shown BJP will win. We are going to get a two-third majority in Uttar Pradesh. Wait for tomorrow,” senior BJP leader Om Mathur told reporters at Parliament House.

Asked to comment on Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s remark hinting at a post-poll tie-up with the BSP, BJP MP from the state Yogi Adityanath said this showed that the SP-Congress combine has “already accepted its defeat”.

Mathur, Adityanath and Union Minister Kalraj Mishra maintained that the BJP leadership will take a call on who will be the next chief minister of the state, if the party is voted to power there.

SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, however, maintained that Akhilesh will get a second consecutive term as the state’s chief minister.

“The exit polls were influenced. Money spoke on March 9 (when the exit poll results were put out by news channels). People will speak on March 11,” he said, reiterating that the SP-Congress combine will get around 240 seats.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Raj Babbar also played down the exit poll results. Babbar also defended Akhilesh for extending an olive branch to the BSP, saying it is a “vision and not desperation of a young leader”. “We are going to form the next government,” he added.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury questioned that authenticity of the surveys.