Career Mayawati

Early political career (1984–1995)

Mayawati joined the BSP when Kanshi Ram founded it in 1984. After unsuccessful contests from Kairana, Bijnor and Haridwar, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bijnor in 1989. She entered the Rajya Sabha in 1994.

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

• 1995: Became Chief Minister in a short-lived government, the first Dalit woman chief minister in India.
• 1997: Second, brief term as Chief Minister.
• 2002–2003: Third term, in coalition with the BJP, which ended when the BJP withdrew support in August 2003.
• 2007–2012: Led the BSP to a full majority with 206 of 403 seats, using a broad "Sarvajan" (all-community) social coalition, and served a full five-year term.

Party leadership

Kanshi Ram named Mayawati his successor in December 2001, and she became the BSP's national president in 2003. She was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2012 until July 2017, when she resigned, saying she had not been allowed to speak in the House on violence against Dalits.

Recent years

The BSP has struggled electorally since 2012. It won 10 Lok Sabha seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party in 2019, one seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, and no seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In January 2026, on her 70th birthday, she announced that the BSP would contest all elections on its own.

Her nephew Akash Anand was named BSP national coordinator and her political successor in 2019, and has been removed from and returned to party posts several times since. On 10 September 2026 she expelled him from the party, saying he had put family ties above the party. In October 2026 she criticised pre-poll surveys for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh election as "sponsored" and urged BSP workers to stay focused.