Bangalore: January 11 is set as the deadline by the Election Commission to drape the statues of Mayawati and the elephants (the BSP’s election symbol) in Uttar Pradesh and it raises many eye brows on the issue whether Mayawati and her elephants would come back to power and continue their reign in the state?

As per Opinion Poll by Star News-Nielsen for Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party will be the front runner in the 2012 while BSP will suffer a major setback. Congress was seen to be improving a lot in several areas despite spate of scam and corruption cases against its ministers. The report also suggests that Mayawati's plan of dividing UP in 4 different states found a lot of support in public, especially in the areas of Purvanchal, but according to Star News, it is not going to translate into votes for the party. The poll predicts that BSP will get 120 seats (-86), SP 135 seats (+38), Congress 68 (+46) and BJP 65 (+14).

After addressing massive election rallies in U.P, Congress claimed that AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi with his ongoing campaign would secure majority in the upcoming assembly elections. On Mayawati’s recent sacking of ministers, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said "She thought of removing them only days before elections. Such gimmicks do not work. It is clear that like her council of ministers has crumbled, her five-year rule is also crumbling and she is not going to come back to power."

Much drama was seen when the exercise of draping the massive statues began as the officials ran out of sheets to cover the giant statues and as they also ran out of ideas on how to effectively go about the task.