After having failed to successfully run coalition governments thrice in Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party is concentrating hard on the 108 Assembly seats where its candidates finished second in the 2002 Assembly elections, besides the 98 where it had won.

The party's strategy for the ensuing polls is to concentrate on the 108 Assembly constituencies in which it had finished runners up in the last assembly elections, BSP sources said.

The strategy is part of its efforts to become the single largest party in the state.

Party leaders feel that if Mayawati succeeded in turning the tide in her favour on these seats, it would not be a difficult task for her to realise her dream of becoming the chief minister for the fourth time.

In order to get a majority in Vidhan Sabha, which has a strength of 403 members, 202 MLAs are needed and the goal is attainable if the party is able to win the seats where it had finished second, they say.

Except for Jaswant Nagar and Chhaparauli, where the BSP candidates lost to their rivals with a margin of over 50,000 votes, in rest of the 106 seats the winning margin of rival parties was less that 30,000 votes.

The party had lost in 65 seats by a margin of less than 10,000 votes. On two seats on Dhanapur and Bara, BSP candidates had lost by a meagre 100 votes, according to the figures available with the state election office.

Similarly, the party had lost Sidhauli, Laharpur and Robertsganj seats with a margin of less than 500 votes, according to official records.

On eight seats - Afzalgarh, Nigohi, Mohammadabad Gohna, Kerakat, Kishnupur, Rajpur, Anupshehr and Shivalkhas the margin was a meager 500 to 1000 votes.

Similarly, on 23 seats the BSP candidates lost by 1000-5000 votes, on 29 seats it was between 5000-10,000 votes, on 30 seats it was between 10,000-20,000 votes and on 11 seats it was between 20,0000-30,000 votes.

The party is hopeful of achieving its goal this time around as it feels that people of the higher castes would also support it in the elections.

Keeping this factor in mind, the BSP has fielded 86 Brahmin candidates besides 38 from the Thakur community.

Though the party had given tickets to only six members of the Bania community last time, this time it had fielded 14 Vaishyas. Besides 61 Muslims, 127 OBC and 93 SC candidates have also been given tickets this time.