NEW DELHI: The possibility of a hung house in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly cannot be discounted especially with sound bytes regarding the same emerging from the political parties.
The minority vote, seen to be one of the crucial determinants, started shifting to the BSP in the last three phases, which had a concentration of Muslim-dominated seats.
Both the BJP and the BSP, which are seen to be running for the top tally, started picking up only after the third phase.
The other reason for the hung house possibility is the fact that it went from a triangular to a multi-cornered contest. While the ruling Samajwadi Party tied up with the Congress, the BJP is in alliance with Apna Dal and Bharatiya Samaj Party, and only BSP contested alone.
In the final analysis, the Samajwadi Party, which banked entirely on the performance record of the Akhilesh Yadav Government, may have been pulled back by its alliance with the Congress and the family feud.
Even a section of elderly Yadav voters may not have taken kindly to Akhilesh’s fracas with father Mulayam Singh, who was mostly missing from the campaign.
While the bitter, high-decibel campaign for five Assembly seats in Varanasi overshadowed all other constituencies, the Naxal-affected districts Sonbhadra, Mirzapur and Chandauli too went to vote on Wednesday.
The anti-terror operation in Lucknow too is said to have polarised the voters, both in the Muslim-dominated seats and the others.