INTRODUCTION

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP):- is a national political party in India. 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, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule & Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj.

Founder of BSPThe BSP was founded by a charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984, who was succeeded by his protege Mayawati in 2003.

The party's political symbol is an Elephant. The party was the third most-voted party in the 2014 Indian general election, but still failed to win any seat in the 16th Lok Sabha. The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

HISTORY The party was founded in 1983 by Kanshi Ram .

Due to his deteriorating health in the 1990s, former school teacher Mayawati became the party's 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 3 June 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

The 11 May 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 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.

2012 UP assembly elections

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

Secret successor of Mayawati

On 9 August 2009, Mayawati declared that she had chosen a successor from the Dalit community who 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.

Lok Sabha TermIndianGeneral Election

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats contested

State ( seats )

Vidhan Sabha Term

UPElections

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats contested

10 th Lok Sabha 1991 231 02 1.61 3.64Madhya_Pradesh(1)Uttar Pradesh ( 1 )

09 th Lok Sabha 1989 245 03 2.07 4.53Punjab ( 1 )Uttar Pradesh ( 2 )

11 th Lok Sabha 1996 210 11 4.02 11.21

Madhya Pradesh(2)Punjab ( 3 )Uttar Pradesh ( 6 )

13 th Lok Sabha 1999 225 14 4.16 9.97 Uttar Pradesh (14)

16 th Lok Sabha 2014 503 0 4.3 NA

12 th Lok Sabha 1998 251 05 4.67 9.84Haryana ( 1 )Uttar Pradesh ( 4 )

14 th Lok Sabha 2004 435 19 5.33 6.66 Uttar Pradesh (19)

15 th Lok Sabha 2009 500 21 6.17 6.56Madhya Pradesh(1)Uttar Pradesh (20)

12 th Vidhan Sabha 1993 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

16 th Vidhan Sabha 2012 403 80 25.95 25.95

15 th Vidhan Sabha 2007 403 206 30.43 30.43

Other states where BSP has a

presence

Bihar Vidhan Sabha

Vidhan Sabha Term

BiharGeneral Election

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats 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

Vidhan Sabha Term

ChhattisgarhGeneral Election

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats contested

2 nd Vidhan Sabha

2003 54 2 4.45 9.4

3 rd Vidhan Sabha

2008 90 2 6.11 6.11

4 th Vidhan Sabha

2013 90 1 4.27 4.29

Delhi Vidhan Sabha

Vidhan Sabha TermDelhiGeneral Election

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats 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

5 th Vidhan Sabha 2013 69 0 5.33 5.44

Haryana Vidhan Sabha

Vidhan Sabha Term

HaryanaGeneral Election

SeatsContested

Seatswon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats 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

13 th Vidhan Sabha

2014 90 1 4.4

Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha

Vidhan Sabhaui Term

RajasthanGeneral Election

SeatsContested

SeatsWon

% ofVotes

% of Votes inseats contested

9 th Vidhan Sabha

1990 205 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

14 th vidhan sabha

2013 199 3 3.37 3.48