By IANS
New Delhi : The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was projected as the clear winner at the end of the seventh and final phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls Tuesday in exit polls conducted by two major English language TV news channels.
While the CNN-IBN predicted that the BSP would end up with 152-168 seats on May 11, the day of counting, the NDTV more cautiously pegged it at 117 to 127 seats.
The final exit polls by the two channels after completion of the seven rounds of polling in Uttar Pradesh, which began April 7, have by and large adhered to the pattern depicted by exit polls conducted after each round of elections, with the BSP shown leading over the others.
The ruling Samajwadi Party of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was still at number two position while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was at third spot – exit polls by both the channels showed.
While CNN-IBN gave the Samajwadi Party 111-99 seats and the BJP 80-90 seats, NDTV gave the ruling party around 113 seats and the BJP 108-118.
The Congress has gained marginally in the CNN-IBN survey with 25-33 seats. The NDTV has on the other hand predicted 35-45 seats for the party.
Both the surveys claimed that the BJP lost its steam in the last two phases, even though it did well in the first few phases.
While all the exit polls so far predicted a good showing for BSP leader Mayawati, the earlier polls conducted by most channels had predicted a big gain for the BJP and had put it at number two, ahead of the Samajwadi Party. The channels say Mulayam Singh seems to have recovered some ground at the end of the last round.