From putting up a decent performance in the last Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 seats stitching an alliance with arch rival Samajwadi Party, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank in the current general elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of Dalits in the state.
Mayawati, who has raised the pitch for the dismissal of the 41-month-old government, described the move as a mark of protest against the speaker's continued recognition of the BSP's 37 defectors as members of the ruling Samajwadi Party.
Newly elected Samajwadi Party MP RK Chaudhary, one of the founders of the Bahujan Samaj Party, has claimed BSP chief Mayawati has been ignoring the Bahujan movement which has led to her party's rout in these Lok Sabha polls.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday fired a salvo at the Akhilesh Yadav government saying law and order had failed completely in Uttar Pradesh reducing it to "crime pradesh", charge rubbished by the chief minister.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday declared her nephew Akash Anand as her 'uttaradhikari (heir)', a party office-bearer said.
Akhilesh Yadav hit back, saying no one had any clue that the alliance was coming apart and that he had dialled the BSP chief to know why the tie-up ended.
The BSP leader won the Bijnor Lok Sabha seat in 1989, her first electoral triumph.
Following the alleged molestation of two Australian women cricketers in Indore, a Madhya Pradesh minister advises players to inform local authorities when going out due to their popularity in India.
Following the alleged molestation of two Australian women cricketers in Indore, a Madhya Pradesh minister advises players to inform local authorities when going out due to their popularity in India.
Referring to her party's pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, she said it was based on "mutual respect" and "honest intentions", adding that "the SP-BSP alliance is perfect enough to defeat the BJP, especially in Uttar Pradesh.
Reacting to Yadav's statement that he wanted her to become the prime minister and that the SP had forged an alliance with the BSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for this, Mayawati, in a tweet in Hindi, said, 'When the SP chief could not fulfil his own dream of becoming the chief minister (of Uttar Pradesh) even after securing the votes of Muslims and Yadavs and forming an alliance with several parties, how can he fulfil the dream of others to become the prime minister.'
"Former Chief Minister Mayawati and I will not contest the assembly elections," Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Satish Chandra Misra told ANI.
The party would consider aligning with any party after assessing the post-poll situation, she said.
''Women are coming into public spaces in larger numbers than ever before. They are educated, capable, opinionated, and determined.' 'But the more women push for access to public space, the harder they are pushed back -- through attacks like this, through discrimination, through the glass ceiling, through the deliberate denial of recognition.'
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh is reviving its 'brotherhood committees', a strategy used successfully in the 2007 elections, to bolster its support among Other Backward Castes (OBCs) ahead of the 2027 state assembly elections. These committees, to be formed in all 403 constituencies, aim to connect with 100 people from OBC communities in each village, acting as ambassadors of the party at the booth level. The BSP sees these committees as a counter to the Samajwadi Party's PDA pitch and a means to consolidate its scattered rural vote bank. The party is also highlighting the 'anti-Dalit' and 'anti-OBC' tactics of the Congress, BJP and SP, hoping to capitalize on perceived grievances and reposition itself as a champion of marginalized communities.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any alliance for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said.
'People are saying Mayawati has an understanding with the BJP.' 'They are calling us the BJP's 'B' team which I did not like.'
Mayawati, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, said she is hopeful her nephew will emerge as a "mature" leader.
The petitioner alleged this hurt his religious sentiments as the BSP supremo compared herself to Lord Rama.
Mayawati's failure to contest the election as also her not organising large election rallies, as she once did, have led political pundits to conclude, rightly or wrongly, that she is 'out of the race', Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesri point out.
According to political observers, the AIMIM sees a catchment area in Bihar, where Muslims are more than 17 per cent of the total population but have never got a proportionate representation in the state legislature.
Reacting to Yadav's dig at her on Wednesday, Mayawati said she has never aspired to become the President and the Samajwadi Party leader was dreaming about it to clear his path to become the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
AIMIM's Bihar state president Akhtarul Iman, the party's lone MLA in the state, has written to RJD president Lalu Prasad, formally requesting inclusion in the grand alliance.
Ambedkar argued that smaller states would allow citizens to have more control over public spending and governance.
She asserted that just like 2007, the BSP will form a government in Uttar Pradesh on its own next year.
It would be better if the Supreme Court takes cognisance of this 'extremely serious and worrisome' incident, which is being discussed across the country, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
Mayawati said it became necessary for her to make the announcement as the Congress and some other parties, as part of a "conspiracy", are allegedly trying to create an impression that they would be forging an alliance with the BSP.
Announcing it on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said she has taken the decision in the interest of the party and the movement and till the time Anand gains "full maturity".
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday claimed the Muslims made a "huge mistake" by voting for the Samajwadi Party, which she accused of being "complicit with the Bharatiya Janata Party in giving communal colour" to the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati dismissed as "drama" Samajwadi Party's demand for special category status for Uttar Pradesh, saying they are raising the issue with an eye on the forthcoming general elections.
She lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, holding them responsible for the lack of jobs and migration from the state.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday launched a frontal attack on Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate Narendra Modi saying the country will be "ruined" due to spike in communal riots if he is voted to power.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday decided to withdraw the state's plea for the enactment of the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act."Since such a law was already in existence in Maharashtra, we felt that it would be effective in Uttar Pradesh as well. But the Home ministry continued to put hurdles in our path and did not allow the bill to be cleared," she said.
Addressing a public event in Orai in Jalaun district, where elections are scheduled on February 20 in the third phase, she went all guns blazing against the BJP, the Congress and the SP.
Gandhi said he has respect for BSP patriarch Kanshi Ram for articulating the Dalit voice of Uttar Pradesh, even though the Congress had suffered during that phase.
But she added that her government will be open to erecting memorials to honour leaders from 'other communities' and keep their religious sentiments in mind.
"Making a person belonging to Dalit caste as the chief minister of Punjab is nothing but an election stunt. I have come to know through the media today that assembly elections in Punjab will be fought under a non-Dalit leader and not under Channi," Mayawati told newspersons in Lucknow
In his resignation letter addressed to BSP president Mayawati, Pandey said he has come to the conclusion that the party does not need his service as neither has he been called for meetings for a long time nor has the party leadership spoken to him.
The Bahujan Samaj Party will make efforts to not field 'bahubali' (strongmen) or mafia candidates in next year's Uttar Pradesh polls, party supremo Mayawati said Friday, announcing that jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari will not be given a party ticket from Mau again.
