Lucknow:
Akhilesh Yadav says he believes in God, but not in religious rituals. So he is not sending up fervent prayers for victory tomorrow. The Samajwadi Party leader's mien is that of a man who has done his bit and now expects results.
Exit polls told him over the weekend that his 10,000-km yatra, 800 rallies in UP over the last six months and a systematic attempt at an image makeover for his Samajwadi Party might just have paid off. The SP, the exit polls say, is set be the single-largest party in a hung Assembly. Mr Yadav refuses to talk post-poll alliances yet because he says he is convinced his party will manage the 202 seats needed for a simple majority in the 403-seat UP assembly, when votes are counted tomorrow.
He is equally clear that father Mulayam Singh Yadav will be Chief Minister if the SP forms government. "All party leaders and workers want Netaji to be CM," he says dispelling any notion that he could take that mantle; he has said that before, but there are the loudest whispers that the son may helm UP if the SP manages comfortable numbers. Mr Yadav Sr has said he will not talk at all till results are out tomorrow.
Akhilesh answers in Hindi every question asked in English. He wears his party's socialist roots on his sleeve. The son-of-the-soil image of the Samajwadi Party's UP president has been cultivated with care and he does not let it flag at this, his moment in the sun. He does not even allow himself a full smile. A mere hint plays on his face when he admits that he shall spend the next few hours before the moment of reckoning with family and kids - a stress-buster. "Will sit with the children, will relax a bit," he says.
The 39-year-old had full charge of the SP's UP 2012 campaign. He had his task cut out. The party has for long had a lawless image, attacked as a "party of goons" by opponents and Akhilesh Yadav set about attempting to change that. He insisted on hand-picking candidates unmindful of whose feet he stepped on, famously keeping the likes of DP Yadav away. Through his campaign he has talked law and order as his party's foremost agenda.
He had other challenges. Three years ago, before the 2009 General Elections, the SP had said it was against the use of English and the use of computers. By 2012, the SP manifesto was the first to promise laptops and tablets for students who completed school-leaving. The manifesto is forward looking with an accent of education.
Among the many changes the younger Yadav is credited with, is bringing in more young, educated professionals into his party.
Akhilesh cut his teeth in politics early. He schooled at the Sainik School in Dhaulpur, Rajasthan, and then acquired a degree in civil environment engineering from the Mysore University. He finished a Masters in environmental engineering from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 1998 and was contemplating taking up water pollution projects when his father drafted him into politics.
Electioneering meant leading youth of the party on a bicycle, his party's political symbol, on the dust-tracks of UP; he was 27 when he entered the Lok Sabha first, winning from Kannauj in 2000, when his father Mulayam Singh vacated the seat having won two - Mainpuri and Kannauj. Mr Yadav has been the Kannauj MP since.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections Akhilesh too contested two seats and won both. He kept Kannauj and gave up Ferozabad. Six months later, when wife Dimple contested by-elections from Ferozabad, she was soundly defeated by the Congress' Raj Babbar, a former Samajwadi Party man. The SP had thought this was a sitter; the Congress made it a prestige battle, with Rahul Gandhi leading a pantheon of leaders to campaign for Mr Babbar.
A vital lesson was learnt - there are no free lunches.
Mr Yadav has been high on visibility in these elections. The red Gandhi cap, white kurta pyjama and black sleeveless jacket have been ubiquitous as Akhilesh has dashed to every corner of the state.