Speaking to The Indian Express, Kanshi Ram said ``the BSP will contest 85 seats on its own and think of a coalition with all non-Congress and non-BJP parties wherever possible.''

Asked if these included the recently formed Rashtrawadi Congress Party he said: ``Why not? If they put forward a proposal for coalition we will be willing to join them.'' The BSP chief's tirade against the Republican Party of India (RPI) last year, again in Thane, -- he had called it ``a bunch of Mahars'' -- ensured that the Dalits ignored the event completely.

In an apparent attempt tosmoothen ruffled feathers, Kanshi Ram spoke at length on the state's heroes -- Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu and B R Ambedkar -- and held forth on Maharashtra's contribution to Dalit emancipation, but failed to enthuse the minuscule gathering.

The split in the Congress, he added, would not benefit the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in the state. ``The Pawar factor will have an impact only in Maharashtra but at the same time, it will not benefit the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the state,'' he told PTI. The BSP leader who recently toured South India, said the Congress was improving its position in the region, asserting that his party would strive to curb the trend. ``The BSP will try to see that BJP gets less than 150 seats and the Congress less than 140 seats in the Lok Sabha,'' he said.

He also predicted another mid-term poll next year. Kanshi Ram said the BSP would contest all Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and field about 150 candidates in seven other neighbouring states. He however refused to comment on hiscurrent equation with the RPI. ``They have started the war between us so let them talk peace first,'' he told The Indian Express.