The optimism at the BJP parliamentary board meeting on Tuesday regarding the Uttar Pradesh poll results was dampened by what the party believes has been a poor show by Yogi Adityanath. Insiders said the future chief minister would now almost certainly be BSP leader Mayawati.

A top BJP leader told The Indian Express, “We believe that once Mayawati crosses the 150 seats mark, she will form the government. This seems likely now as we failed to make the gains we had hoped for in the last phase.”

On the surface, the BJP is maintaining that it stands a chance. The strategy, with the RSS giving advice, has been to upset the Congress gameplan of forming the government with the BSP with one important rider: When the coalition government is formed, the first chief minister would be from the BJP.

The plan is not likely to work if Mayawati crosses the 150 mark, which in the BJP’s own estimation is very much on the cards. An evidently upset BJP leader said the expectations from the seventh phase, described as a BJP stronghold earlier, had been belied and Adityanath’s influence was “overhyped”. According to him, even the Gujarat development had a negative effect.

The BJP had been keeping its options open and the Samajwadi Party (SP) had not been treated as a pariah either. The contacts were with the top brass and, according to a BJP leader, the SP had suggested a “neutral” candidate for the chief minister’s post. Options had been considered informally.

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