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Mayawati

About Mayawati

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Who is Mayawati?

Mayawati Kumari is an Indian politician and a four-time former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which aims to represent and help the underprivileged and backward castes. She has been the first female Scheduled Caste CM in India as well as the youngest women chief minister in the country.
 
Early life and education
Mayawati, also known as Chandawati Devi, was born on January 15, 1956 in Delhi to Ram Rati and Prabhu Das. Mayawati studied Bachelor's degree in arts in 1975 from Kalindi College, University of Delhi (DU) and thereafter, went on to obtain her LLB degree from the Faculty of Law, DU in 1983. She completed thw BEd course from Meerut University's VMLG College, Ghaziabad, in 1976.

Career
Mayawati began her career as a schoolteacher in Inderpuri JJ Colony, Delhi and was also studying for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) exams. She was influenced by Kanshi Ram's ideologies and his activities. Kanshi Ram included her as a member of his team when he founded the BSP in 1984. She was first elected to the Parliament in 1989. She won her first term as the CM in 1995, becoming the first Dalit woman to hold the position.
 
Many Dalits across the country consider Mayawati as an idol and refer to her as Behen ji (elder sister). She has been a vocal advocate of reservation for socially and economically backward classes in government posts and private sector jobs. She has also been praised for her fundraising efforts and increasing personal wealth, which many see as a symbol of empowerment for the Dalit community.
 
Despite her popularity, Mayawati has also faced criticism for her authoritarian style of leadership and her tendency to promote family members and close associates to high positions. She has been accused of corruption and using government funds to build monuments to herself and her party symbol, the elephant.
 
Mayawati's political career has been marked by several alliances and fallouts with other political parties. She has formed alliances with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the past, but has also broken off these alliances and formed new ones with other parties. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, her party failed to win a single seat.
 
Mayawati has been the subject of several biographies, including "Mayawati: A Biography" by Ajoy Bose and "Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayawati" by Ajoy Bose and Smita Gupta. Several documentaries have also been made on her, including "Mayawati: The Emergence of a New Dalit Voice" and "Behenji: The Political Biography of Mayawati."

Latest Updates on Mayawati

She also hit out at the BJP, alleging the ruling party and the Congress are cut from the same cloth when it comes to taking Ambedkar's name for vote bank politics

Updated On: 22 Dec 2024 | 5:31 PM IST

In a series of posts on X, Mayawati said that Shah's remarks have hurt the hearts of the people

Updated On: 21 Dec 2024 | 11:21 AM IST

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister's assertion comes amid the ongoing tussle between the ruling BJP and the opposition parties over Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks

Updated On: 20 Dec 2024 | 2:15 PM IST

During the discussion on the Constitution in Lok Sabha, the ruling side and the opposition, especially the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, to woo Dalit and OBC voters, have said a lot of baseless"

Updated On: 15 Dec 2024 | 4:51 PM IST

Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Rampur district unit president Surendra Sagar's son recently tied the knot with the daughter of Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Alapur

Updated On: 07 Dec 2024 | 2:57 PM IST

The BSP supremo on Saturday addressed a meeting of senior party leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in Lucknow and stressed on them the need for Dalits and Ambedkarite communities to unite

Updated On: 30 Nov 2024 | 3:39 PM IST

A survey of the Jama Masjid was conducted earlier on Tuesday on the orders of a court in Sambhal district

Updated On: 22 Nov 2024 | 12:54 PM IST

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that a multi-level investigation will be conducted

Updated On: 16 Nov 2024 | 11:48 AM IST

The BSP president claimed that the number of jobs provided by her government is more than the combined employment provided by the subsequent SP and BJP governments in the state

Updated On: 04 Nov 2024 | 3:38 PM IST

Former UP chief minister also slammed the two parties for their "misleading" slogans -- BJP's 'Batenge toh Katenge' (divided we fall) and SP's 'Judenge toh Jeetenge'

Updated On: 02 Nov 2024 | 10:55 PM IST

"The active engagement of casteist parties, which oppose reservation and threaten the unity of millions of oppressed and neglected Dalits, proves that the BJP and Congress are two sides of the same

Updated On: 29 Oct 2024 | 12:03 PM IST

Pawar criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his recent remarks in Maharashtra that the Congress had done nothing for the Banjara community

Updated On: 13 Oct 2024 | 3:30 PM IST

In the recently-concluded Haryana elections, BSP and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) fought in alliance. But the BSP drew a blank

Updated On: 11 Oct 2024 | 5:30 PM IST

Mayawati voiced disappointment over the Haryana election results, attributing the BSP-INLD alliance's setback to the Jat community's lack of support for her party

Updated On: 09 Oct 2024 | 11:24 AM IST

She also took to X to paid tributes to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram on his 18th death anniversary

Updated On: 09 Oct 2024 | 9:48 AM IST

BSP chief said due to the government's negligence, the market of adulteration is flourishing ever

Updated On: 26 Sep 2024 | 1:33 PM IST

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday dubbed the Congress "anti-reservation", accusing it of having a "duplicitous and deceptive" reservation policy for Dalits and backward classes.

Updated On: 24 Sep 2024 | 12:59 PM IST

Mayawati also called on Dalit leaders to take inspiration from Ambedkar and distance themselves from such parties

Updated On: 23 Sep 2024 | 11:05 AM IST

The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo also stressed that the Centre and state governments must pay attention to the implementation of the Constitution and the rule of law

Updated On: 18 Sep 2024 | 12:07 PM IST

Akash Anand, 29, has been named in the party's list of star campaigners for the Haryana assembly polls released on Friday

Updated On: 15 Sep 2024 | 6:04 PM IST