'BSP voter does not announce vote, exit polls wrong'

New Delhi: The media blitz predicting Chief Minister Mayawati’s rout in Uttar Pradesh doesn’t seem to have dented the BSP worker’s confidence. If it has, then he is not showing it. “The BSP voter does not go around announcing who he has voted for. He doesn’t feel comfortable speaking to TV cameras. The electronic media takes opinions of people in the cities. If they surveyed people in the villages, the results would be more relevant. I can guarantee you, that these exit polls will be proved wrong. Ours is the largest party,” says Rajesh, a party worker who was present at Mayawati’s election rally in Faizabad, one of the districts that went to polls in the first phase. Shiv Balak Verma, a young BSP worker from Harraiya, an assembly seat in Basti district, also is unflustered by the saturation coverage of Mulayam Singh and his son Akhilesh Yadav, after exit poll after exit poll has predicted victory for the Samajwadi Party. [caption id=“attachment_234615” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Statues of elephants (BSP election symbol) being uncovered after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections at Mayadham Park in Noida on Sunday. PTI”]  [/caption] “We are set for a decisive victory in Harraiya. We will get 70-75,000 votes,” says Shiv Balak. Harraiya’s BSP candidate, Mamta Pandey, is banking on the votes of Brahmins and the Dalits, the communities that dominate the region. BSP party workers, says Shiv Balak, have been told to be present at Basti’s sabzi mandi (vegetable market), where counting of votes for the five assembly seats in the district is scheduled begin at 8 am. Commenting on the exit poll results, Shiv Balak criticised the media in UP for its anti-BSP bias. “They always publish news that is against our party. They have never published news that is in our favour.” With Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma who has been a key election strategist of the Congress Party, declaring his preference for Mayawati over Mulayam for coalition partner, the BSP seems to have suddenly found an unlikely ally at time when most people are writing them off. Confronted with a very real possibility of a dramatic fall in the number of seats – going by the exit polls, that is - Shiv Balak hints at the mood in the BSP when he says, “It is a possibility. If our tally falls, then it cannot be ruled out.” The mood among Congress party workers in Beni Prasad’s turf seems to have been hit after the exit poll results. The earlier expectation among party workers of President’s rule being imposed — in hope of the elections results throwing up a hung assembly — has been replaced by the possibility of a tie-up with the BSP. “We will be lucky if we get 70 seats, that’s my feeling. Babuji (referring to Beni Prasad Verma) has said that we will take the support of the BSP,” says youth Congress member from Barabanki, Anuj Kumar Verma. So will Rahul and Mayawati bury the hatchet to keep Mulayam out? Tomorrow’s show promises to be a thriller.