LUCKNOW: Gujarat chief minister and newly-appointed BJP campaign committee chairperson Narendra Modi is expected to campaign in 42 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

The seats shortlisted are those where probability of BJP victory is high.

Sources in BJP said that Modi is expected to start his UP campaign from Ayodhya. The BJP wants to cash on his hardliner image by polarising voters on communal lines.

"In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, we expect to repeat 1998 performance when the party won 57 Lok Sabha seats out of total 80 in the state," said party leaders.

After 1998, the BJP graph is declining in UP. It won only 10 seats each in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Party's performance was also poor in 2007 and 2012 assembly elections with party winning only 51 and 47 seats respectively. Now, BJP is trying to use Modi charisma to revive its fortune in the state.

The seats shortlisted for Modi's campaign include Maharajganj, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Varanasi, Ballia, Dumariaganj, Bahraich and Sultanpur in eastern UP, Lakhimpur, Dhaurhara, Lucknow, Unnao, Kanpur in central UP and Ghaziabad, Meerut, Agra, in western UP.

Besides hardline Hindutava, BJP also plans to play caste card by wooing other backward classes, particularly Kurmis, by invoking freedom fighter and India's first deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.

Modi has already given a call to collect iron offerings from villages for the proposed iron statue of Sardar Patel, also known as the iron man.

