With an aim to keep its national party tag intact Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party could be the only political party in the country to contest over 500 seats in the upcoming lok Sabha polls. The party has asked its State units to give names as early as possible regarding this, a senior BSP leader said.
He said in the 2009 lok Sabha polls the BSP had fielded over 500 candidates in 25 States and Union Territories as compared to 440 candidates fielded by the Congress and 433 by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Of these only 21 candidates had emerged winners — all of them from Uttar Pradesh.The BSP, trying to recover from the defeat in 2012 Assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh, has already announced all 80 lok Sabha candidates from the State.
The party, which came into existence on April 14, 1984, had contested 245 candidates in 18 States for the first time in 1989 lok Sabha polls in which it had got only three seats. In 1991 general elections BSP had fielded 243 and in 1996 it fielded 210 candidates. After attaining the national political party status it fielded 258 candidates while in 2004, the number of BSP candidates in 25 States was 435 — highest till then.