Don't write Mayawati off - she may be the dark horse this UP election

The hurly burly is done, and the dust has settled on this gruelling, high octane and often bitter campaign across 403 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

This has been an election Iike no other in recent memory. High voltage, in-your-face campaigns where everything from religion, caste and development or the lack of it has been on a par for the course.

What has added to the lustre is the personalities involved, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to his young challengers, Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi to Mayawati, each vigorously campaigning in a desperate bid to capture power come March 11.

Their claims will be put to test on Saturday, a week from now, the day the results are announced. This, however, has been a unique election in more ways than one. No PM in recent memory has staked so much on a state election, that too in his own parliamentary constituency.

Modi spent the last three days of his campaign in Varanasi trying to reconnect and restablish his hold on the electorate. He hit the roads, garlanding every statue in sight, paying obeisance to every deity - all in the hope of reworking the electoral magic of 2014.

Not since the time the Congress threw its entire might in trying to thwart VP Singh from winning the bye-elections in Allahabad in 1987 have so many Union ministers been pushed into campaign, as was witnessed in Varanasi.

Modi and Amit Shah appear to have been forced to do so by the mega show of strength by the duo of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. Their decision to carry the fight to Modi's home turf clearly forced the PM's election managers to push the panic button.

Varanasi became the political epicentre in the last week of this campaign. Politicians of all shapes and sounds descended on the city, investing in the process prestige to the contest, not seen in a long time.

Varanasi apart, the tone and tenor of this campaign changed dramatically as it progressed. It started off on a sedate note in the first two rounds but by the time it crossed into the Avadh region, it began to take on distinctly partisan and communal overtones. 

Cow slaughter, shamshaan and kabristaan, allegations of bias in distribution of power between Diwali and Eid, dominated the discourse.

The SP-Congress alliance started on a promising note and appeared to have the momentum behind it in the first few rounds, but showed signs of failing as the campaign wore on. Though the alliance was put together just ahead of the elections, the chemistry between Akhilesh and Rahul worked well, having taken time to gel on the ground.

Though high on energy, the alliance appeared to struggle in coming up with a cogent counter to the BJP's aggressive campaign of galvanising the upper castes and non-Yadav OBCs against it, by alleging that the alliance worked only for the Yadavs and Muslims.

All eyeballs were focused on the Modi-led BJP and the alliance, while BSP's Mayawati continued to function under the radar.

She has undertaken the audacious gamble of trying to forge a coalition of Dalits and Muslims. The turnout at her meetings was huge and the response energetic.

Perhaps an indicator that this may not be an entirely two-horse race.

Also read: 12 key things I learnt on the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh