Lucknow, April 2 (IANS): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati would begin a whirlwind tour of Uttar Pradesh, her home state, from Thursday, a party leader said.

The Dalit leader will address her first election rally in Bijnore in western UP and will later address a public meeting at Nagina, Aligarh. She will fly to Hathras April 4 and speak at a rally at Muzaffarnagar.

This would be her maiden appearance in Muzaffarnagar after the September 2013 communal riots in which 63 people were killed and thousands were rendered homeless. She has been criticized by local minority community for not standing with them in their hour of crisis.

The former UP chief minister will also be travelling to Kairana Lok Sabha constituency the same day. She will address rallies at Gautambudh Nagar (Noida) and Bulandshahr April 5.

Between April 7-9, she will take a break from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh and would go for poll campaign in other states. Later she would also be addressing rallies at Shravasti, Balrampur, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Shahjahanpur and Ambedkarnagar.

The BSP chief is making a frantic bid to regain the ground she lost to arch rival Samajwadi Party in the 2012 state assembly election.