New Delhi, April 26: Mayavati has trained her sights on Karnataka with the hope of testing her social engineering skills in the May Assembly elections.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister — behenji to her Bahujan Samaj Party rank and file — intends to field candidates in all 224 seats. This would be a first for the party in the southern state, though the final list of candidates is not out yet.

Starting May 5, Mayavati will hold a series of rallies across the state.

She would address meetings in Devanahally and Kollegal the first day. In Hospet and Chitradurg, she would hold rallies on May 12, in Hubli and Belgaum on May 17 and Bidar and Gulbarga on May 18.

Karnataka votes in three phases — on May 10, 16 and 22.

Although her social engineering experiment — of aligning Dalits with upper castes — has seen little success in north India outside Uttar Pradesh, Mayavati may try wooing the upper castes down south with a demand for quotas for the economically backward among them.

The Karnataka move would be a big electoral test for the BSP as it is trying to turn from a party for the “bahujan samaj” to that of the “sarvjan samaj”.

Mayavati’s caste experiment has failed in Gujarat, where the BSP did poorly in the last Assembly elections that saw the BJP ride back to power under Narendra Modi’s leadership.

The BSP has, however, done well in the Delhi municipal elections, though poorly in other northern states in recent times.

Its latest Assembly and Lok Sabha byelection wins were in Uttar Pradesh, where the party is already in power.

BSP leaders say they expect to impact the poll outcome in Karnataka by splitting Dalit votes. They are counting on the BSP playing a role in government formation in the event of a hung House, sources said.

Keeping to the social engineering line, the party will nominate candidates from upper castes as well as backwards and minorities.

Mayavati’s Karnataka move is being viewed with concern in the Congress as the BSP is likely to dent its Dalit base.

The BSP did not win any seat in the last Karnataka elections .