The number is more than twice last year's figure and brought immediate fears that significant damage could be done to community relations in Yorkshire's racially-diverse towns and cities.
Last night all three main political parties expressed their concern about the dramatic increase in the number of candidates which emerged as the local election nominations closed yesterday. They urged voters on June 10 to put their cross against any party other than the BNP.
The biggest rise in numbers is in Leeds where the BNP is putting up 23 candidates compared to eight last year. Neighbouring Wakefield has jumped from only two to 12.
The BNP will also be heavily represented in Calderdale and Kirklees, where it already has councillors and expects to win more seats. A significant number of the candidates are women, including the majority of the total of 14 standing in Barnsley.
Nationally, the BNP is expected to field in excess of 400 candidates in the local elections and is also comprehensively covering the European seats which are elected under a system of proportional representation.
If it were to gain a presence in Brussels it would be able to significantly boost party funds by tapping into the deep pool of Euro funding.
By radically altering its image and toning down some of its policies on race, the BNP is hoping to capitalise on what it believes is widespread disillusionment with the three main parties, and issues such as immigration and asylum.
Of the 101 candidates it is fielding in Yorkshire, 75 are in West Yorkshire – showing the BNP is targeting specific areas it believes is fertile ground. Only last week more than 120 people attended a meeting in Morley Town Hall, Leeds. Such meetings have become regular events in West Yorkshire, attracting significant audience numbers and raising funds for the party.
But last night Kevin Barron, chairman of the Yorkshire group of Labour MPs, called on the region to send a firm message to the BNP.
The Rother Valley MP said: "I think they are racists. They play on people's fears and create fears that fascist parties have done over the years in Europe and they are no different.
"I hope the people of Yorkshire give them a resounding 'No' on June 10."
Conservative local government spokesman Eric Pickles, MP for Brentwood and Ongar, said everything the BNP stood for was "absolutely loathsome."
Mr Pickles, a former leader of Bradford Council, added: "If a community wants to put up a sign that it's closed for business and in terminal decline there is no more effective way than electing a BNP councillor. It's a turn off to investors and for people who might want to live there.
"I don't believe they are a proper democratic party. All political parties have a duty to fight them and to deny them any possible chance of a seat."
The national chairman of the Liberal Democrats, Matthew Taylor MP, bitterly attacked the BNP as a "racist party" which uses "violence and intimidation on the doorstep".
He said: "The evidence is that in most places there is little support for them. They have only won in wards where turnouts have been very low and consistently when people have discovered what poor councillors they make, they have thrown them out.
"They have been exploiting poverty and deprivation more than issues of race but where they have been elected they've divided the community rather than find solutions."
But Nick Cass, the BNP's leading European candidate on a full list of six in Yorkshire, which was also confirmed yesterday, denied the party was racist and said other parties were scared.
He said: "I would like to know why we would have used violence and intimidation on the doorstep as it's a private ballot. If we'd done that, I don't think they would be voting for us.
"And if we had no support, why are the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives ganging up on the BNP and trying to stop us?"
He also said that the BNP's by-election success in the Kirklees ward of Heckmondwike last year was won with the biggest turnout for 30 years.
The growth in support and wider spread of candidates is also going to throw the spotlight on employers, not least local authorities themselves.
The Yorkshire Post has learnt at least three of the candidates are council workers at Kirklees, Wakefield and Bradford Councils – all local authorities with significant ethnic minorities.
One of them, Alan Milton, a mechanic in the cleansing department at Kirklees, who is standing in the Newsome ward, said: "It's gone round work that I'm standing. I work with Asians and a few West Indians and nobody has said a thing. I can't see any problem at work – I deal with everyone the same."
Mr Milton would have to resign from his job if he was elected because employees are not allowed to become councillors on the same authority.
Last night his union, Unison, of which he was been a member for 12 years, reacted angrily and said it hoped to be in a position to expel him and other BNP members once a proposed legal change was put in place.
Alan Hughes, Unison head of negotiations in Yorkshire and Humberside, said: "The views of members of the BNP transgress the very foundations of Unison's rules and values.
"As the law stands currently we are unable to expel members whose beliefs or actions run counter to those principles."
The Yorkshire Post has also learnt that a West Yorkshire fireman is one of the BNP organisers in the Kirklees area and that up to nine firemen have attended BNP meetings in the area.