Mumbai: Virtually sounding the bugle for Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today (Aug 19, 2004) declared its intention to carve out a separate State of Vidarbha and name it after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

"If voted to power, BSP will create a separate State of Vidarbha and name it Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vidarbha Rajya," BSP president Mayawati, who arrived in Mumbai last night to oversee party's preparations for elections, told reporters.

BSP's announcement for Vidarbha assumes significance in the backdrop of the party's impressive performance during Lok Sabha polls in the backward region of the State. The party had polled three per cent of the votes in the Lok Sabha polls and its presence had resulted in Congress bagging only one seat out of the total 11 in Vidarbha.

Though BSP has little stakes in Maharashtra, the party plans to contest all the 288 Assembly seats and hopes to make inroads in Vidarbha by playing the emotional card of statehood, the party sources said.

On the issue of BSP's alliance with Congress and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), Mayawati said, "We have not given a thought to it. At present the party plans to contest on its own strength."

Scotching off reports that BSP was hobnobbing with Congress, she said, "We have not initiated seat-sharing talks with any one as yet."

Asserting that BSP would contest Assembly polls with its "entire might", Mayawati said, "our effort is to enhance self-respect of dalits and OBCs (Other Backward Classes) by providing them the master-key of power."

She hastened to add that her party was not against upper caste people.