Bahujan Samaj Party

For the Nepalese party, see Bahujan Samaj Party, Nepal.

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Bahujan Samaj Party

Chairperson	Mayawati
Secretary-General	Satish Chandra Mishra Dr. Suresh Mane, Naseem Uddin Siddiqui, Swami Prasad Maurya
Leader in Lok Sabha	Rajesh Verma
Leader in Rajya Sabha	Mayawati
Founded	1984
Headquarters	12, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, New Delhi - 110001
Newspaper	Adil Jafri, Mayayug
Ideology	Dalit Socialism Secularism Social Engineering
Political position	Centre-left
Colours	Blue
Seats in Lok Sabha	21 / 545
Seats in Rajya Sabha	15 / 245
Seats in UP Legislative Assembly	80 / 403
Website
bspindia.org
Politics of India Political parties Elections

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) (Hindi: बहुजन समाज पार्टी) is a centrist national political party in India with socialist leanings. It was formed mainly to represent Bahujans (literally meaning "People in majority"), referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC) as well as minorities. The party claims to be inspired by the philosophy of B. R. Ambedkar. The BSP was founded by a Dalit charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984, who was succeeded by Mayawati in 2003. The party's political symbol is an Elephant. In the 15th Lok Sabha the party has 21 members, making it the 4th-largest party. The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Origin of the word "Bahujan" [edit]

The Pali word Bahujan is popularly found in the literature of Buddhism. Lord Buddha used this word to guide his disciples to work for the "Bahujan Hitay Bahujan Sukhay" (Meaning: Benefit and prosperity of majority people). Another meaning of the word Bahujan is people in majority. The BSP has historically drawn a loyal base of voters from India's lowest caste (Dalit). It has attempted to grow nationally as well, but has met limited success so far. Its current majority government in Uttar Pradesh was in large part due to a reach-out towards other castes, even some members of the upper castes.

History [edit]

Bahujan Samaj Party claims to represent the low and lowly. A man carrying the BSP flag.

The party was founded in 1984 by Kanshi Ram . Due to his deteriorating health in the 1990s, former school teacher Mayawati became the party's de facto leader. The party's power grew quickly with seats in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and India's Lower House of Parliament. In 1993, following the assembly elections, Mayawati formed a coalition with Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Yadav as Chief Minister. In mid-1995, she withdrew support from his government, which led to a major incident where Mulayam Singh Yadav was accused of keeping her party legislators hostage to try to break her party. Since this, they have regarded each other publicly as chief rivals. Mayawati then sought the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to become Chief Minister on June 3, 1995. In October 1995 the BJP withdrew support to her and fresh elections were called after President's Rule.

Success in 2007 UP assembly elections [edit]

The May 11, 2007, the Uttar Pradesh state assembly election results saw the BSP emerge as a single majority party, the first to do so since 1991. The BSP President Ms. Mayawati began her fourth term as Chief Minister of UP and took her oath of office along with 50 ministers of cabinet and state rank on May 13, 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 voters from their traditional party, the BJP.

BSP is now the third largest national party of India having more than 10% vote share across the country.

2012 UP assembly elections [edit]

The party could manage only 80seats (against 206 in 2007 assembly elections) due to anti-incumbency factor. BSP government was the first in the history of Uttar Pradesh to complete its full five-year term.^[1] On 11 July 2012, the party in a major revamp, replaced Swami Prasad Maurya by R A Rajbhar as President of UP Unit.^[2]

Controversies [edit]

The BSP has recently been embroiled in controversy due to its leader, Mayawati's penchant for erecting her own statues along with her political mentor Kanshi Ram, and B.R. Ambedkar throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh mainly Lucknow which is the capital and Noida/Greater Noida which is her home town.

Secret successor of Mayawati [edit]

On 9 August 2003, Mayawati declared that she had chosen a successor from the 'chamar' community and is 18–20 years her junior. She has penned down his name in a sealed packet left in the safe custody of two of her close confidantes. The name of the successor will be disclosed on her death.^[3]

Lok Sabha (Lower House) [edit]

Lok Sabha Term	Indian General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested	State ( seats )
09 th Lok Sabha	1989	245	03	2.07	4.53	Punjab ( 01 ) Uttar Pradesh ( 02 )
10 th Lok Sabha	1991	231	02	1.61	3.64	Madhya Pradesh ( 01 ) Uttar Pradesh ( 01 )
11 th Lok Sabha	1996	210	11	4.02	11.21	Madhya Pradesh ( 02 ) Punjab ( 03 ) Uttar Pradesh ( 06 )
12 th Lok Sabha	1998	251	05	4.67	9.84	Haryana ( 01 ) Uttar Pradesh ( 04 )
13 th Lok Sabha	1999	225	14	4.16	9.97	Uttar Pradesh ( 14 )
14 th Lok Sabha	2004	435	19	5.33	6.66	Uttar Pradesh ( 19 )
15 th Lok Sabha	2009	500	21	6.17	6.56	Madhya Pradesh ( 01 ) Uttar Pradesh ( 20 )

| 164 | 67 | 11.12 | 28.52 |- | 13 th Vidhan Sabha | 1996 | 296 | 67 | 19.64 | 27.73 |- | 14 th Vidhan Sabha | 2002 | 401 | 98 | 23.06 | 23.19 |- | 15 th Vidhan Sabha | 2007 | 403 | 203 | 30.43 | 30.43 |- | 16 th Vidhan Sabha | 2012 | 403 | 80 | 25.91 | 25.95 |}

Other states where BSP has a presence [edit]

Bihar Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Bihar General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
10 th Vidhan Sabha	1990	164	0	0.73	1.41
11 th Vidhan Sabha	1995	161	2	1.34	2.66
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2000	249	5	1.89	2.47
13 th Vidhan Sabha	Feb. 2005	238	2	4.41	4.50
14 th Vidhan Sabha	Oct. 2005	212	4	4.17	4.75
15 th Vidhan Sabha	2010	243	0	3.21	3.27

Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Chhattisgarh General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
2 nd Vidhan Sabha	2003	54	2	4.45	9.4
3 rd Vidhan Sabha	2008	90	2	6.11	6.11

Delhi Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Delhi General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
1 st Vidhan Sabha	1993	55	0	1.88	2.42
2 nd Vidhan Sabha	1998	58	0	3.09	3.63
3 rd Vidhan Sabha	2003	40	0	5.76	8.96
4 th Vidhan Sabha	2008	69	2	14.05	14.05

Haryana Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Haryana General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
8 th Vidhan Sabha	1991	26	1	2.32	7.67
9 th Vidhan Sabha	1996	67	0	5.44	7.2
10 th Vidhan Sabha	2000	83	1	5.74	6.22
11 th Vidhan Sabha	2005	84	1	3.22	3.44
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2009	86	1	6.73	7.05

Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Himachal Pradesh General Election]	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
7 th Vidhan Sabha	1990	35	0	0.94	1.76
8 th Vidhan Sabha	1993	49	0	2.25	3.0
9 th Vidhan Sabha	1998	28	0	1.41	3.28
10 th Vidhan Sabha	2003	23	0	0.7	2.02
11 th Vidhan Sabha	2007	67	1	7.40	7.37
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2012	67	0	1.7	2.02

Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Madhya Pradesh General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
9 th Vidhan Sabha	1990	183	2	3.54	5.89
10 th Vidhan Sabha	1993	286	11	7.05	7.86
11 th Vidhan Sabha	1998	170	11	6.15	11.39
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2003	157	2	7.26	10.62
13 th Vidhan Sabha	2008	230	7	8.97	9.29

Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Maharashtra General Election	Seats Contested	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
8 th Vidhan Sabha	1990	122	0.42	0.98
9 th Vidhan Sabha	1995	145	1.49	2.82
10 th Vidhan Sabha	1999	83	0.39	1.24
11 th Vidhan Sabha	2004	272	4.0	4.18
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2009	287	2.35	2.42

Punjab Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Punjab General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
10 th Vidhan Sabha	1992	105	9	16.32	17.59
11 th Vidhan Sabha	1997	67	1	7.48	13.28
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2002	100	0	5.69	6.61
13 th Vidhan Sabha	2007	115	0	4.13	4.17
14 th Vidhan Sabha	2012	117	0	4.28	4.28

Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan Sabha Term	Rajasthan General Election	Seats Contested	Seats won	% of Votes	% of Votes in seats contested
9 th Vidhan Sabha	1990	57	0	0.79	2.54
10 th Vidhan Sabha	1993	50	0	0.56	2.01
11 th Vidhan Sabha	1998	108	2	2.17	3.81
12 th Vidhan Sabha	2003	124	2	3.97	6.40
13 th Vidhan Sabha	2008	199	6	7.60	7.66

Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha [edit]

Vidhan S	70	3	12.19	12.19

References [edit]

^ http://eciresults.nic.in/PartyWiseResult.htm
^ "BSP replaces U.P. chief". 12 July 2012.
^ Nerve - News and Analysis of India. "Mayawati talks of a secret successor : India". Nerve.in. Retrieved 2012-07-12.

'Krant'M.L.Verma Bolshevikon Ki Kartoot (A revolutionary novel of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil) Edition 2006, 4760-61, 23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002 India Praveen Prakashan ISBN 81-7783-129-1.

External links [edit]

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