Mr Yadav, who had so far ruled out a post-election tie-up with the other regional heavyweight Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, on Thursday did a u-turn, saying he could explore that possibility if the results tomorrow throw up a hung assembly with no party getting a majority. "Nobody wants President's Rule, the BJP to run Uttar Pradesh by remote control," the chief minister told BBC Hindi in an interview.
A poll of exit polls, which aggregated six exit polls shows the BJP getting 211 seats in UP, comfortably over the 202 seats needed to form government. It shows The Samajwadi Party getting 122 seats and the BSP 61. UP has 403 assembly seats.
Mr Gandhi has led his party from the front in this year's assembly elections, particularly in UP where he has campaigned extensively, and if the Congress fares poorly again on Saturday, questions about his leadership will be resurrected. The Congress has been on a downward slide losing state after state since its disastrous performance in the 2014 national election, when it could win only 44 Lok Sabha seats, its lowest tally ever.
