Mayawati votes in Lucknow, claims victory

She smiled at the polling officials as they checked her voting ID card and inked her finger.

BSP supremo shows a victory sign after casting her vote at a polling booth in Lucknow on Sunday.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati here on Sunday cast her vote in the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

Clad in a fawn coloured salwar suit and a matching floral shawl, Ms. Mayawati at around 9 a.m. walked in the polling booth number 251 at the Mall Avenue polling station.

She smiled at the polling officials as they checked her voting ID card and inked her finger.

Later interacting with the media, the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister claimed a wave in favour of the BSP and said her party was number one in the two rounds of balloting so far.

She said the BSP would get 300 plus seats at the end of the polling.

Exuding confidence, Ms. Mayawati said she was confident of a “government on our own” as people had decided to favour her party.

“The ‘hawa-hawai’ claims of the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party will fall flat on their faces and we will romp home to power,” she said.

Accompanied by her confidante and party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, she was mobbed by journalists outside the polling station to get her views on the ongoing election process.

Ms. Mayawati also pointed out the large turnout at her election rallies had made it clear that she would be voted to power this time.

Later she flashed a “V” sign and posed for pictures with her voter card.

Her party was voted out of power in 2012 and drew a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections where it could not win a single seat of the 80 the BSP contested.