Mayawati’s social engineering will be put to the test as 15 constituencies of central UP go to the polls in the third phase on Thursday. The phase is crucial for BSP as five of the 15 seats are reserved and a good number of constituencies have a sizeable Brahmin-Muslim population.

In 2004, the area going to poll had 16 seats, of which both SP and BSP had won six seats each while BJP and Congress won two apiece. But the 2007 assembly polls were a real clincher for the blue brigade as it won 42 of the 80 seats. Clearly, the support of Brahmins came as icing on the cake for BSP which started looking beyond its traditional votebank.

While a repeat of the 2007 show doesn’t look a possibility for BSP, thanks to significant change in ground realities and an apparent disillusionment being witnessed among Brahmins, multi-cornered contests on almost all the seats giving sleepless nights to all other parties. The winner, in these circumstances, is normally decided by the steadfast support of one big block: Muslims, Brahmins or Dalits.

As things stand now, while Rae Bareli is a walkover for Sonia Gandhi, other 14 seats look set for a last-over finish. In Lucknow, where AB Vajpayee used to sleepwalk his way to victory in the previous five LS polls, his protege Lalji Tandon is facing Akhilesh Das, a BSP moneybag with Congress lineage, and UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi. Kanpur has junior home minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal battling with his back to the wall against three formidable opponents.

With no national issue likely to decide the voting pattern, parties are whipping up all kinds of propaganda, ranging from caste card to character assassination of rivals to make a dent. As it happened in 2004, local issues are likely to be on top of voters’ mind when they press EVM buttons.

Congress, meanwhile, has propped up some interesting candidates in this phase. So, while Mayawati’s former principal secretary PL Punia is testing the power of ‘panja’ in reserved Barabanki constituency, Anu Tandon has come out of boardrooms of Mumbai to brave the heat and dust, and muscle power of mafia Aruna Shankar Shukla in her native Unnao.

The party has also roped in BSP’s tainted former MP Raja Ram Pal — an accused in the cash-for-query scam — from Bilhaur and late Rajiv Gandhi’s commando Kamal Kishore from Bahraich. BJP has fielded an IIM grad Ranjan Choudhary from Mohanlalganj constituency and SP has poached Nafisa Ali from Congress stable for Lucknow seat.