Mayawati
Prabhu Das commonly fondly known as Mayawati is an Indian politician
heading the Bahujan Samaj Party. Being the member of the party since its
inception in 1984, she later became the party president in 2001. She
has served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times (briefly in
1995, 1997, 2002-2003 and 2007-2012). Mayawati has been the youngest
woman Chief Minister and the first ever female Scheduled Caste member to become
Chief Minister of any state. After losing in the 2012 legislative
assembly elections to Samajwadi Party, she resigned from her post as a
party leader on March 2012, and later that month she was elected to a
seat in Rajya Sabha through acclamation. As the leader of the party, she
has also been lauded for mobilizing funds for her party.Born on 15th
January 1956 in Delhis Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani hospital, Mayawati has 6
brothers. Her father Prabhu Das was a postal employee at Badalpur in
Gautam Buddha Nagar in 1975, her mothers name is Ram Rati. In her
family, the sons were sent to private schools whereas daughters went to
low-performing government schools. Mayawati completed her B.A. in 1975
from Kalindi Womens College under the Delhi University. After the
completion of B.A., she earned a B.Ed. from VMLG College, Ghaziabad in
1976. Thereafter in 1983, she did her LLB from Delhi University. After
completing her B.Ed. course in 1976, she started teaching students in
Inderpuri JJ Colony, Delhi and was also preparing for the IAS exams.
Sometime in 1977, a well kown Scheduled Caste politician Kanshi Ram visited her
family home and was highly impressed by Mayawati’s speaking style and
motivated her to join politics. According to biographer Ajay Bose,
Kanshi Ram told her that I can make you such a big leader one day that
not one but a whole row of IAS officers will line up for your orders. In
1984, Kanshi Ram founded the Bahujan Samaj Party and the party focused
as a platform to bring social change and to improve the welfare of the
weakest of the Indian society consisting of the Bahujans or SC/STs,
Other Backward castes and religious minorities. Kanshi Ram included
Mayawati as the member of the party marking her first step in Indian
politics. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1989
representing Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh in the 9th Lok Sabha elections. In
1994, she became a member of Rajya Sabha for the first time. Kanshi Ram
remained the president of BSP until 2001 however, due to his
deteriorating health in the 1990s, the party’s leadership shifted in the
hands of Mayawati, a former school teacher. In 1993, Mayawati made a
coalition with Samajwadi Party in the assembly elections and helped
Mulayam Singh Yadav in becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
However on 2nd June 1995, Mayawati withdrew her support from the
government after accusing Mulayam Singh Yadav for sending goons at her
place, keeping her party legislators hostage at the Lucknow guest house
as well as trying to break her party. She also accused Mulayam Singh
Yadav that he shouted castes abuse at her. After withdrawing support
from Samajwadi Party Mayawati sought her support to Bharatiya Janata
Party and became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 3rd June 1995.
She created history by becoming the first ever Scheduled Caste women in India to
serve as the Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh. On October 1995, the BJP
withdrew support to her and fresh elections were called after Presidents
rule. She won to the Lok Sabha elections in 1996 from two different
constituencies and chose to serve Harora. After that from 1996 to 1998,
she also served as MLA in the U.P state Assembly. On 21st March 1997,
she again became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh marking her second
term as the Chief Minister and retained the post till 20th September
1997. In the 12th Lok Sabha elections of 1998, she was elected as member
representing Akbarpur constituency. In 1999, she became a member of the
13th Lok Sabha. Despite Mayawati leading the party, Kanshi Ram remained
the party’s president until 2001. Being a diabetic and a host of other
serious ailments, he wasn’t able to lead an active political life. On
December 15, 2001, Kanshi Ram in a rally in Lucknow declared Mayawati
the then Vice-President of the party as his political successor. On
February she was re elected for the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly.
On March 2002, she resigned from the Akbarpur Lok Sabha seat and on 3rd
May 2003, she became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third
time and remained on this post till 26th August 2002. Following the ill
health of Kanshi Ram, she became the National President of BSP on 18th
September 2003. In May 2004, she was re elected from Akbarpur for the
14th Lok Sabha. In July 2004, she resigned from Lok Sabha and became the
member of Rajya Sabha for the second time. On 27th August, she was
elected as the National President of BSP for the second time. Kanshi Ram
died on October 2006 due to a severe heart attack. Mayawati performed
the last rites of Kanshi Ram in Buddhist tradition which is traditionally performed by the
male heirs of the family in Hindu tradition. In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh
elections, BSP won the majority and she became the Chief Minister of
Uttar Pradesh for the fourth time and retained the post of the Chief
Minister till March 2012. In the 2007 elections, Mayawati had the slogan
to convert Uttar Pradesh to Uttam Pradesh. The governance of the
Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh was very well praised and the
government began a major crackdown on the irregularities made by the
police department during the Mulayam Singh government. In this process,
over 18,000 policemen lost their jobs for irregularities in their hiring
and 25 IPS officers were suspended for their involvement in corruption.
She also introduced transparency into the recruiting process, including
posting the results of selection exams online. In 2008, Mayawati
launched Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Shahri Garib Awas Yojna a scheme to
build low cost houses for urban poor and completed two rounds of
construction till 2012 when her tenure of Chief Minister ended. The BSP
government is also praised for maintenance of law and order in Uttar
Pradesh and for their significant contributions in the field of
infrastructure and medical facilities in the rural and urban
areasMayawati is widely regarded as a self made woman and she began her
political career with hardwork and her own struggle. Mayawati is
unmarried and has dedicated her life to serve the weaker sections of the
society. Mayawati is criticized for wasting the tax payers money by
building several statues of icons of Buddhism, Hinduism and Dalits
including herself during her tenure as the Chief Minister. The CBI in
2002 raided her house suspecting financial irregularities related to Taj
Heritage Corridor, however in June 2007, the then Governor T.V.
Rajeshwar declared that there is no evidence of her involvement. . On
9th August 2009, Mayawati declared that she has chosen her successor
from the Scheduled Caste community who is 18-20 years junior to her and she has
pinned down the name in a sealed packet in a safe custody. The name of
the successor will be declared after her death.

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