Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which isn’t part of any alliance, has announced 25 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, will go to polls in four phases. In the first of the two lists released on Sunday, seven out of the 16 candidates are Muslims, a strategic move likely to impact the Congress-SP opposition alliance while helping the BJP.

This list also has four candidates from the upper caste, two from the OBC community, and three SC candidates from reserved seats.

Majid Ali from Saharanpur, Zeeshan Khan from Rampur, Shaulat Ali from Sambhal, Irfan Saifi from Moradabad, Mujahid Hussain from Amroha,  Abid Ali from Aonla, and Anis Ahmad Khan from Pilibhit featured on the first list.

A senior party official said that the BSP chief has picked more Muslim candidates as the BSP aims to regain the support of the community to make a comeback in Uttar Pradesh politics. Even if 19% of the Muslims support the BSP, the party will be able to increase its tally in the Lok Sabha and legislative assembly, he said.

The SP-Congress alliance is also fielding Muslim candidates from Saharanpur, Sambhal, Moradabad, and Amroha. One of the reasons for Akhilesh Yadav to partner with Congress was to consolidate the Muslim votes in its favour. However, if a Muslim candidate from BSP is able to cut votes, it will dent the chances of INDIA bloc candidates in west UP as it happened on several seats in 2022 assembly polls.

Mayawati is working on a rainbow coalition of Dalits-Muslims-OBCs-Upper Castes. By fielding candidates from diverse backgrounds including Muslims, upper castes, and OBCs, Mayawati aims to convey a message of inclusivity. The BSP employed its social engineering strategies to win the 2007 assembly elections where the party formed a majority government.

The BSP”s OBC candidates are Dara Singh Prajapati fighting from Muzaffarnagar and Jat candidate Vijendra Singh from Bijnor. Its four upper caste candidates are Shripal Singh, Rajendra Solanki, Praveen Bansal, and Devvrat Tyagi—contesting from Kairana, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Baghpat, and Meerut, respectively.

For the reserved seats of Nagina, Shahjahanpur, and Bulandshahr, the BSP has announced the names of Surendra Pal, Dodram Verma, and Girish Jatav, respectively.

While BSP MP from Amroha has already moved to the Congress, Mayawati has replaced MPs in Saharanpur, Nagina, and Bijnor amid buzz of Bijnor MP Malook Nagar”s meetings with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leaders, Saharanpur MP Haji Fazlur Rehman”s decision to abstain from electoral contests while pledging support to candidates challenging the BJP, and the expulsion of Amroha MP Danish Ali, who was declared as the Congress candidate for the same constituency on Saturday.

Later in the evening, the BSP unveiled its second list, featuring nine candidates for Mathura, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Kanpur, Akbarpur, and four reserved seats—Hathras, Agra, Etawah, and Jalaun.

It’s fielding Hembabu Dhangar from Hathras, Pooja Amrohi from Agra, Sarika Singh Baghel from Etawah, and Suresh Chandra Gautam from Jalaun.

Baghel, a former MP from Hathras, was the youngest woman MP from the Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD in 2009. She later joined the SP before joining the BJP in 2019.

From the remaining five seats, the BSP has picked candidates from upper caste — three Brahmins, a Vaishya, and a Rajput.

In Mathura, journalist and advocate Kamalkant Upmanyu will be the BSP candidate, while Fatehpur Sikri sees Ram Niwas Sharma, who had fought the assembly poll from Fatehpur Sikri in 1993 on an SP ticket but lost. He quit politics after BSP denied him a ticket in 2012 assembly polls.

For Firozabad, BSP has chosen businessman and advocate Satendra Jain Solly, known for his activism against infrastructure issues.

Kuldeep Bhadauria, emerging from a background in student politics, will fight from Kanpur, while Rajendra Kumar Dwivedi, a seasoned businessman, is contesting from Akbarpur seat of Kanpur Dehat.