Key Bulgarian Socialist MP Challenges Party Head at Election

Korneliya Ninova, a lawmaker from the biggest oppostion party, the BSP, has said she is entering the leadership race at the party.

She has confirmed, in an interview with private bTV broadcaster, her participation in the process of electing a new leader for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) due on May 7-8 in Sofia as socialist are t o have a special congress.

Initially Mikov, who has headed the BSP since the summer of 2014, did not say whether he would run, but reports suggest he is intending to do so.

"I will submit my candidacy, I will take part in this race until the end," she has declared, also adding she will hold on to the principle of not commenting on the current leadership in the run-up.

Ninova is known as one of the "spearheads" of the BSP in Parliament, often coming up with tough questions to the ruling parties.

She wants to bring the BSP back to a key role in Bulgaria's political landscape, one the party has been steadily losing since the summer of 2013. Protests erupted then across Bulgaria against the appointment of Delyan Peevski, a controversial MP and alleged media mogul, as head of domestic counter-intelligence agency DANS, made under a government dominated by the socialists.

In 2014, weak performance of the BSP in the European Parliament elections added to the collapse of its cabinet and the resignation of Sergey Stanishev (currently head of the Party of European Socialists) as its leader.

Nearly two years on from Mikov's election, many in the BSP disagree with him on the steps that should be taken to give it back the prominent role it had in the past.

Ninova also ran in the 2014 election.