BSP to contest all 224 seats in the state

Bangalore, Apr 11: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest all the 224 seats in the coming elections to the dissolved Karnataka Assembly, party State General Secretary P G R Sindhia said today.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the candidates list would be announced in a couple of days and the election campaign would be taken up in three phases for the three-phased elections on May ten, 16 and 22. The campaign would begin from Periyapatna in Mysore district from April 13, he added.

Party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati would be campaigning in the State for four days. ''We cannot tell you exactly how many seats we will win, but I can assure you that BSP will play a major role in the Assembly elections,'' he said replying to a question.

The BSP, which took just 1.2 per cent of votes in the 2004 elections, still made an impact, hurting the interests of the Congress which lost many segments by a narrow margin.

The party would come out with a booklet, explaining the reasons why people should vote in favour of the BSP. It would be printed in Kannada, Hindi and English.

UNI