After fielding candidates for 150 Assembly seats in poll bound Bihar, the Shiv Sena now sets its eyes on Uttar Pradesh where Assembly elections are due in 2017.

To start with, the party has decided to contest the bypoll at communally sensitive Muzzafarnagar Assembly constituency which will be held later this year. The bypoll is necessitated after the demise of Samajwadi Party MLA Chitranjan Swaroop in August 2015.

The party will also field candidates at bypoll of Bikapur constituency (in Faizabad district) which is close to Ayodhya. “We will field candidates in both the by-elections,” Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP told dna over phone from Aurangabad (Bihar). Raut is supervising the Bihar Assembly election at present with holding rallies for Sena candidates.

The party has also announced its plan to contest on more than 300 seats in UP. Raut says, “We have started our ground work in UP. Out of 403 Assembly seats, we will contest at least on 300.”

When asked about skewed organisational strength of the party in Bihar and UP, Raut claims, “We already have a well-established organization in both the states. And, this is not the first time that we are contesting in Bihar or UP. We are getting very good support from the people in Bihar.”

Raut says that Sena fielded four candidates from Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “One of our candidates polled over 35,000 votes and another got 30,000 which is quite encouraging, especially when we were first timers then,” says Raut.

Raut denies that party’s prolonged campaign against UP and Bihar people in Maharashtra will negatively impact the party in the two states. He rather insists that his party has extended its agenda of “Hindutva” and “Bhumiputra” to these states as well which will strike the chord with the people.

Though the SP and BSP have been the main players in UP politics for almost 20 years now, the BJP drastically changed the scene last year by winning 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats.

The Sena’s entry is expected to make the contests interesting and narrower since Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM has also announced its entry in the poll fray in UP where 18% Muslim population have a decisive role.

The SP and BSP rely heavily on Muslim votes. With the Hindutva agenda, Sena will dent BJP’s vote bank.

Raut refuses to comment on the impact of AIMIM. When asked if Sena held any talks with the BJP before announcing its stake in UP and Bihar, Raut says, “There is no need to talk. We have our own identity. We want to expand outside Maharashtra and we have a right to do so.”