Bahujan Samaj Party
.JPG)
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ( Hindi बहुजन समाज पार्टी Bahujan Samāj Pārṭī [ ˈbʌhʊdʒʌn sʌˈmɑːdʒ ˈpɑːrʈi ]; about "party of the majority population") is an Indian party . It was constituted in 1984 by Kanshi Ram to represent the interests of the Dalits (casteless). As early as 1974 Ram had tried to found a party with a similar goal, the All-India Backward and Minorities Employees Federation , which, however, had no political success. BSP initially developed its main activities in the northern Indian states of Punjab , Madhya Pradesh , Haryana and Uttar Pradesh . For a number of years it has been based predominantly in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's most populous federal state. In addition, it appears in many other regions of the country on the political stage with a certain relevance. Since it bundles the Dalit votes, it often tips the scales in the constituencies . The presence or absence of an independent BSP candidate can have a lasting effect on the chances of applicants from other parties.
In the state of Uttar Pradesh, the BSP rivals in the center-left spectrum or among members of the lowest castes primarily with the social-democratic Samajwadi Party (SP), which is led by the former Defense Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav . It is noticeable that this state is more marked by caste loyalty than the Indian average .
In Uttar Pradesh, the party has provided regional government several times. Three BSP-led coalition governments with the participation of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1995, 1997 and 2002–2003 each time more or less clearly failed because of Mayawati's striving for omnipotence . The former teacher, once number two in the party hierarchy after founder Kanshi Ram, actually conquered the top spot in the late 1990s. The unmarried politician, contrary to Indian custom, is ambitious and a brilliant rhetorician as well as tactically adept, but is described as brusque and bossy in personal dealings. Corruption allegations against herself and close relatives were one of the reasons that her third government collapsed. In the elections to the regional parliament in Uttar Pradesh in April and May 2007, the BSP was able to gain an absolute majority for the first time (207 of 402 mandates) by skillfully including candidates from the upper castes and from the Muslims and formed a government without a coalition partner. In the next election in 2012, however, it was severely punished and reduced to 47 parliamentary seats.
Except in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP is represented in the neighboring federal states of Chhattisgarh , Haryana , Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as well as in Telangana , but there it only plays a subordinate role with one to four members.
The BSP competes nationwide in the all-India parliamentary elections, but only plays a significant role in Uttar Pradesh. In the 1999 parliamentary elections , she won 14 out of 85 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. In the following parliamentary election in 2004 , the BSP was able to expand its presence to 19 seats and in the parliamentary election of 2009 to 21 seats. In the 2014 parliamentary elections , however, due to the good performance of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP was unable to win a single constituency and thus missed entry into the Lok Sabha .
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Know the BSP. rediff.com, 2004, accessed January 16, 2015 .