The BSP, which emerged as a third force in the 1993 Assembly polls bagging 11 seats in the State, has put up candidates in 160 of the 320 seats while its activists would work to defeat BJP in other constituencies, party sources here said.

Singh has already declared that Congress and BSP have agreed on a strategic understanding to defeat BJP in the State.

While all the 11 sitting BSP MLAs have been renominated, the party candidates include 45 from Scheduled Castes, 26 from Scheduled Tribes, five minorities and 80 from OBCs.

BSP has not put up its candidate against Singh in Raghogarh, State Congress president Urmila Singh (Ghansor), deputy chief minister Subhash Yadav (Kasrawad) besides many ministers.

However, theparty is set to witness a triangular contest with Congress and BJP in all the seats of Gwalior, Chambal and Rewa divisions besides many others bordering Uttar Pradesh where it used to command considerable influence. BSP would fight against 12 ministers besides former Chief Minister S C Shukla in Rajim, Congress veteran Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh (Churhat), and Assembly speaker Sriniwas Tiwari (Mangava).

BSP's P B Nishad would contest from Rajim and S Patel from Churhat while its State unit chief and legislature party leader Dauram Ratnakar has been renominated from Pamgarh for the third time.

As compared to other parties including the main Congress and BJP, the BSP has grown steadily in the State since 1990 despite a dismal show in the last Lok Sabha polls.