UP polls 2017: BSP has an edge and Mayawati is likely to return to power

Six months prior to the 2017 Assembly elections, the battle for power in Uttar Pradesh was seen as a fight between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which is presently ruling at the centre. The BJP's chances had dwindled slightly after its state vice president Dayashankar Singh made some inappropriate comments against Mayawati. At that point, the Samajwadi Party, the party currently in power, was widely perceived to be out of the race.

All of a sudden, a series of melodramatic incidents within the SP's ruling family catapulted Akhilesh Yadav from the