Away from direct public contact and mostly tweeting in support of the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has decided to assess her popularity in the bypolls to eight Assembly seats scheduled to be held by the end of this year.

The BSP would not usually contest bypolls in the past.

A senior BSP leader told The Telegraph on Friday that Mayawati has finalised the nominees from Tundla (Firozabad), Swar (Rampur), Bangarmau (Unnao), Malhani (Jaunpur), Deoria Sadar, Bulandshahar, Ghatampur (Kanpur) and Naugaon (Amroha) seats.

“As the Election Commission is expected to announce the date by next month, Mayawati has assigned her party’s sector in-charges to make public the names of her candidates by the end of this month. Some of the selected candidates have already been asked to start campaigning. For example, Kuldeep Shankhwar, former zonal coordinator of the BSP, is already meeting his supporters in Ghatampur,” a BSP leader said on condition of anonymity.

“Although, the BSP generally doesn’t contest bypolls as Mayawati believes that it is wastage of party resources and she should focus on general elections to form her government, she is the first to finalise our party candidates much before the ruling BJP and main Opposition, the Samajwadi Party,” the leader said.

“Mayawati had said in a party meeting two days ago that the bypolls would be a warming up for the Assembly elections 2022.”

The BJP held six and the Samajwadi held two of the eight seats, which had fallen vacant because of the demise or disqualification of the members.

The BJP has 304 seats in the House of 404. The Samajwadi, BSP and the Congress have 48, 18 and seven seats respectively.