Mayawati had addressed a mammoth ‘Bhaichara Rally’ in Bangalore on December 24, 2007.

Nominations for the Karnataka polls will be filed between April 26 and May 3. Suryavanshi Baijnath, the party general secretary in Karnataka, told The Indian Express over phone that the elections would see a 10 per cent increase in votes for the BSP.

He claimed that the BSP would face a direct fight with the BJP, Congress and Janata Dal on different seats. “Our victory in at least 50 seats is confirmed,” he claimed.

Eyes are set on the BSP’s strategy in the South where caste equations are totally different from that of UP.

“We are basically focusing on backwards, OBCs and religious minorities, which comprise 67 per cent of the total votes,” Baijnath said.

Party spokesperson Sudhir Goel, too, confirmed that the party is following the UP pattern of social engineering in the southern state also. “We have taken all castes, creed and communities together in the Karnataka polls,” he said.

Stressing on the party’s latest mantra of ‘Sarvajan’, Goel said the party has taken all castes in its fold. According to him, the BSP will emerge as a major player in the formation of the next government in Karnataka.

Party sources back home, too, sounded confident. “The presence of BSP in Karnataka would compel many established political parties to redefine their poll strategies,” a leader said.