“The BSP wants to replicate the social engineering experiment in Maharashtra as well. The party will contest all the 48 seats in the state and give representation to all communities,” state BSP chief Vilas Garud told a news conference here on Wednesday. He said the party had done an “in-depth study” of all the Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and it will field candidates on the basis of community strength in the respective constituency. “There will be maximum representation to candidates from the Maratha community, which is dominant in the state.” The candidates announced by the party on Wednesday also include environmentalist Jayendra Parulekar in Ratnagiri and A K Tripathi in Thane. The BSP had earlier announced 10 candidates in the state, including gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, for the Lok Sabha elections.

“Sudhir Das is the chief priest at Kalaram temple. He decided to join the BSP to atone for the sins committed by his grandfather Mahant Ramdas in 1930 by not allowing Babasaheb Ambedkar and his followers to enter the temple,” Garud said.

Maintaining that the party will also field candidates from the OBC, Dalit and Muslim communities, Garud said the party is looking to win seats in the state. The BSP had contested 46 seats in 2004 and bagged 4.16 per cent votes. As many as 11 candidates from the Congress and the NCP had lost owing to the BSP participation in the elections.