BSP set to form government in UP

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has conceded defeat in the UP Assembly elections as BSP has taken a huge lead and is all set to form the next government in the state.

The Congress party has hinted at offering outside support to Mayawati.

According to the latest reports, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was leading in both Bharthana and Gunnaur constituencies while senior Congress leader Jagadambika Pal and Apna Dal president Sonelal Patel trailed in Basti and Kolasla respectively.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan, BJP leader and Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Rajesh Agarwal and former state BSP president Indrajit Saroj were among those leading in the trends.

Khan was leading in Rampur, while Agarwal took an early lead in Bareilly city and independent candidate Akhilesh Singh was ahead in Rae Bareli Town constituency.

After two hours of counting, the BSP was leading in 154 of the 353 seats from which trends were available.

The Samajwadi Party was a distant second, ahead in 88 seats, followed by the BJP (63), Congress (23) and others (25).

The counting of votes got under way amid high security across Uttar Pradesh after seven phases of polling spread over a month.

The Election Commission has issued stringent guidelines to ensure the exercise is completed smoothly. 402 of the 403 assembly constituencies in the state went to the polls this time.

Exit polls have placed Mayatwati's BSP as having a clear lead. For Chief Minister Mulayam Singh, this has been the toughest election ever, trying hard to retain his Muslim- Yadav votebank and ward off anti-incumbency.

According to the CNN-IBN-Indian Express-CSDS exit poll, the Western UP which sees a five-cornered fight is likely to be dominated by the BSP while Ruhelkhand is likely to see a neck-to-neck fight between the SP and the BSP.

BSP leads BJP and SP in triangular contest in the Doab region while Avadh is likely to be a straight fight between BSP and the SP.

BSP's elephant is likely to be way ahead of the others in the Bundelkhand region. SP versus BSP are likely to have a direct contest in the East.

In north-eastern UP, Samajwadi Party's cycle is likely to be way ahead of the BJP and the BSP. Based on these figures the UP assembly is likely to look like this: The BSP is likely to emerge as the single largest party with a tally of 152 to 168 seats; the SP is in second position with a likely tally of 99 to 111 seats; the BJP and its allies are likely to get 80 to 90 seats; Congress likely to finish with 25 to 33 seats and others are likely to get between 21 and 27 seats.