Bhubaneswar: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is scheduled to address a rally here on April 2, according to reports.
The party had earlier submitted a list of its start campaigners to the Chief Electoral Officer of Odisha. The list includes senior party leader Satish Mishra, Akash Anand, Tankadhar Bag and Krushna Chandra Sagaria, among others.
Reports suggest that Mayawati could launch her poll campaign from Bhubaneswar. She will then address a rally in Nagpur on April 5 and thereafter launch campaign in Uttar Pradesh by addressing a joint rally along with alliance partner the SP and the RLD at Deboand on April 7.
BSP is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. Despite efforts to rope her into the grand alliance of the opposition, Mayati has remained non-committal.
BSP has also forged an alliance with the SP in Odisha. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also decided to join the BSP-SP alliance in the State. Former union minister Srikant Jena is the coordinator of this alliance.
BSP has decided to filed candidates from Koraput, Nabarangpur and Kalahandi Parliamentary seats and in all the assembly constituencies falling under these three constituencies. Polling in these seats will be held in the first phase.
SP will field candidates from Junagadh and AAP from Khariar assembly seats.
Krushna Chandra Sagaria, a former Congress leader who defected to BSP, has already announced his candidature from the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat and Jeypore assembly seat.