Bahujan Samaj Party

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a progressive political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to the country's Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with minorities. According to Kanshi Ram, when he founded the party in 1984, the Bahujans comprised 85 percent of India's population, but were divided into 6,000 different castes. The party claims to be inspired by the philosophy of B. R. Ambedkar, Jyotirao Phule, Narayana Guru, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, and Gautama Buddha.

Kanshi Ram named his protégée, Mayawati, as his successor in 2001. The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where it was the second-largest party in the 2019 Indian general election with 19.3% of votes and fourth largest in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election with 12.88% of votes. Its election symbol is an elephant which is also the symbol historically used by Dr. Ambedkar's Scheduled Castes Federation.

Etymology

"Bahujan" is a Sanskritic term found in Hindu and Buddhist texts, and literally refers to "many people", or "the majority". It connotes the combined population of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Muslims, and minorities who together constitute the demographic majority of India. The word "Bahujan" appears in the dictum "Bahujana Hitaya Bahujana Sukhaya", or "The benefit and prosperity of the many", articulated by Gautama Buddha.

In his writing, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar used the term to refer to the majority of people in society that experienced discrimination and oppression on the basis of caste. Jyotirao Phule used the term in a similar context, and compared the Bahujans of India to Slavery in the United States. Schedule Caste and Bahujan writers have suggested this proportion was 70 percent of the population.

History

Bahujan Samaj Party was founded on the birth anniversary of B. R. Ambedkar (14 April 1984) by Kanshi Ram, who named former school teacher, Mayawati, as his successor of BSP in 2001. The party's power grew quickly with seats in the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh and the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. In 1993, following the assembly elections, Mayawati formed a coalition with Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief Minister. On 2 June 1995, she withdrew support from his government, which led to a major incident where Mulayam Singh Yadav was accused of sending his zealots to keep her party legislators hostage at a Lucknow guest house and shout casteist abuses at her. Since this incident, they have regarded each other publicly as chief rivals. Mayawati then obtained support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to become Chief Minister on 3 June 1995. In October 1995, the BJP withdrew their support and fresh elections were called after a period of President's Rule. In 2003, Mayawati resigned from her own government to prove that she was not "hungry for power" and asked the BJP-run Government of India to remove Union Tourism and Culture Minister, Jagmohan. In 2007, she began leading a BSP-formed government with an absolute majority for a full five-year term.

On 14 April 2009, the Bahujan Samaj Party celebrated its silver jubilee. The Manywar Shri Kanshi Ramji Shahri Garib Awas Yojna housing scheme for the poor was launched by Lucknow Development Authority (LDA). The role of Mayawati was discussed in BSP's success. A mass rally was organised in Lucknow with 10000 police personnel on duty. It was the 305th and largest rally of BSP since 1984. As per Observer Research Foundation, within 25 years BSP became the third largest political party of India.

On 10 December 2023, Mayawati declared her nephew Akash Anand as the party's successor. However, he was sacked immediately after his comments on the ruling BJP party.

In recent years, the party has seen a decline in popularity in both state and national elections, with key figures within the BSP defecting and election results declining.

Views BSP believes in "Social Transformation and Economic Emancipation" of the "Bahujan Samaj". The Bahujan Samaj signifies the Bahujans as the Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST), and the Other Backward Castes (OBC). B. R. Ambedkar, a proponent of Bahujan rights, is their important ideological inspiration. The BSP also speaks in favor of religious minorities. The party claims not to be prejudiced against upper-caste Hindus. In 2008, while addressing the audience, Mayawati said: "Our policies and ideology are not against any particular caste or religion. If we were anti-upper caste, we would not have given tickets to candidates from upper castes to contest elections".

List of chief ministers Chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh No Image Name Constituency Term of office Tenure length Assembly1 MayawatiNone 3 June 1995 18 October 1995 12th AssemblyHarora 21 March 1997 21 September 1997 13th Assembly 3 May 2002 29 August 2003 14th Assembly MLC 13 May 2007 15 March 2012 15th Assembly

Electoral performances Previous general elections (1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004)

Success in 2007 The results of the May 2007 Uttar Pradesh state assembly election saw the BSP emerge as a sole majority party, the first to do so since 1991. Mayawati began her fourth term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and took her oath of office along with 50 ministers of cabinet and state rank on 13 May 2007, at Rajbhawan in the state capital of Lucknow. Most importantly, the majority achieved in large part was due to the party's ability to take away majority of upper castes votes from their traditional party, the BJP.

The party could manage only 80 seats in 2012, as opposed to 206 in 2007 assembly elections. BSP government was the first in the history of Uttar Pradesh to complete its full five-year term. On 26 May 2018, Ram Achal Rajbhar was replaced by R S Kushwaha as the president of UP unit.

2014 Lok Sabha elections The 2014 national Lok Sabha elections saw the BSP become the third-largest national party of India in terms of vote percentage, having 4.2% of the vote across the country but gaining no seats.

2019 Lok Sabha elections: Mahagathbandhan Prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BSP formed an alliance. The Mahagathbandhan (or Grand Alliance), or simply the Gathbandhan (Alliance),'SP-BSP-RLD thagbandhan won't cross double digits' , The Hindu (14 April 2019) is an anti-Congress, anti-BJP Indian political alliance formed in the run-up to the 2019 general election under the leadership of two former Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal and several other political parties, contesting in different states of India.

In Uttar Pradesh, BSP contested 38 seats, SP 37, and RLD 3, and the alliance supported Congress in the final two. Due to this seat sharing agreement, BSP's vote share fell slightly nationally and in the state, but they won 10 seats, up from 0 in 2014. The Samajwadi Party won 5 seats, giving the alliance a total of 15 seats out of 80 in the state.

2024 Lok Sabha elections: Historic setback On 19 July 2023, the BSP had announced that it would neither side with the INDIA nor the NDA and would go alone in the 2024 Indian General Election. However, it had its worst performance in a Lok Sabha election. It lost all ten of its seats in Uttar Pradesh that it had gained in the previous election and didn't gain any seats elsewhere. Its national vote share fell to 2.07%, less than half of what it was in 2014 when it also won 0 seats.

Election results Lok Sabha Lok Sabha term Year Seatscontested Seats won± Seats vote %± vote % State (seats) 9th 1989 245 4 2.07% - Punjab (1)UP (3) 10th 1991 231 1 1.61% 0.46% MP (1)Punjab (1)UP (1) 11th 1996 210 8 4.02% 2.41% MP (2)Punjab (3)UP (6) 12th 1998 251 6 4.67% 0.65% Haryana (1)UP (4) 13th 1999 225 9 4.16% 0.49% UP (14) 14th 2004 435 5 5.33% 1.17% UP (19) 15th 2009 500 2 6.17% 0.84% MP (1)UP (20) 16th 2014 503 21 4.19% 1.98% 17th 2019 383 10 3.67% 0.52% UP (10) 18th 2024 488 10 2.07% 1.6%

Legislative Assembly elections

Year Seats contested Seats won ± Voteshare (%) ± (%)Bihar Legislative Assembly 1990 164 0.73% 1995 161 2 1.34% 2000 249 31.89% Feb 2005 238 3 4.41% Oct 2005 212 2 4.17% 2010 243 4 3.21% 2015 228 2.1% 2020 80 11.5% 2025 130 1.62% Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly 2003 54 2 4.45% 2008 90 6.11% 2013 90 14.27% 2018 33 13.9% 2023 58 2 2.05% Delhi Legislative Assembly 1993 55 1 3.90% 1998 58 13.15% 2003 40 5.76% 2008 70 2 14.05% 2013 69 2 5.33% 2015 70 1.31% 2020 68 0.71% 2025 70 0.58% Haryana Legislative Assembly 2000 83 15.74% 2005 84 3.22% 2009 86 6.73% 2014 87 4.4% 2019 87 1 4.21% 2024 35 1.81% Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly 1990 35 0.94% 1993 49 2.25% 1998 28 1.41% 2003 23 0.7% 2007 67 17.40% 2012 67 11.7% 2017 42 0.49% 2022 53 0.35% Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly 1996 29 4 6.43% 2002 33 34.50% 2008 83 1 3.73% 2014 50 1.41% 2024 27 0.96%Jharkhand Legislative Assembly 2009 78 2.44% 2014 61 1.8% 2019 67 12.5% 2024 55 0.78% Karnataka Legislative Assembly 2018 1810.30% 2023 1331 0.31%Kerala Legislative Assembly 2011 122 0.60% 2016 740.24% 2021 720.23% Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly 199018323.54% - 199328697.05%3.51% 1998 170 6.15% 0.9% 2003 157 9 7.26% 1.11% 2008 228 5 8.97% 1.71% 2013 227 3 6.29% 2.68% 2018 227 2 5.01% 1.28% 2023 181 2 3.40% 1.61%Maharashtra Legislative Assembly 1990 122 0 0.42% 1995 145 0 1.49% 1999 83 0 0.39% 2004 272 0 4.0% 2009 287 0 2.35% 2014 280 0 2.33% 2019 262 0 0.92% 2024 262 0 0.48%Punjab Legislative Assembly 1992 105 9 16.32% 1997 67 8 7.48% 2002 100 1 5.69% 2007 115 4.13% 2012 117 4.29% 2017 111 1.52% 2022 20 1 1.77%Rajasthan Legislative Assembly 1990 57 0.79% 1993 50 0.56% 1998 108 2 2.17% 2003 124 3.97% 2008 199 4 7.60% 2013 199 3 3.37% 2018 199 3 4.03% 2023 199 4 1.82%Telangana Legislative Assembly 2018 106 22.10%2023 106 1.37%Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly 200268 710.93% -2007 70 111.76% 0.83%2012 70 512.19% 0.43%2017 69 36.98% 5.21%2022 54 24.82% 1.16%Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly 1989372139.41% -199138619.44%0.03% 1993 164 55 11.12% 1.68% 1996 299 19.64% 8.52% 2002 401 31 23.06% 3.42% 2007 403 108 30.43% 7.37% 2012 403 126 25.91% 4.48% 2017 403 61 22.23% 3.71% 2022 403 18 12.88% 9.43%

Gallery

Notes

See also BAMCEF Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti Republican Party of India Kanshi Ram Mayawati Jai Bhim Bahujan Volunteer Force List of political parties in India

Bahujan Samaj Party

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