Upper castes comprise major chunk of BSP candidates for UP

Lucknow, Mar 13 (UNI) Upper castes comprise a major chunk -139- of the Bahujan Samaj Party candidates for the 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The list of the party's nominees released today by BSP supremo Mayawati includes 86 Brahmins, 38 Rajputs and Kayasthya-Vaishya 14.

Known for its Dalit vote bank, BSP has given the ticket to 93 Dalit candidates, including 89 seats reserved for the Schedule Castes (SC).

Four Dalits including two sitting legislators have also been given ticket from general seats.

SP has also given tickets to 89 Muslim and 110 seats to Backwards.

Ms Mayawati also announced that the BSP will contest the polls alone and if required she will contest the by-polls ''after her government came to power.'' '' I have decided against contesting polls as I would like to concentrate my energy in campaigning and managing the elections,'' she told reporters.

Ms Mayawati asserted that any MLA of the party could resign to accomodate her in the Assembly, if BSP gets absolute majority in the poll.

She announced that in no way BSP will change the name of the candidates. ''In the event of an emergency, the caste of the candidate would remain the same,'' she added.

In the 2002 assembly elections, Ms Mayawati had contested from two seats -- Harora and Akbarpur. But she resigned from the two seats and entered the Lok Sabha from Akbarpur. She later resigned from LS to enter the Rajya Sabha.

The notification for the first phase of elections due on April 7 was issued this morning. The elections in UP would be held in seven phases betweeen April 7 and May 8.

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