Party : Bahujan Samaj Party

Mayawati is a political leader from Uttar Pradesh, was born on January 15, 1956 in Delhi and at present, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.  She graduated from Delhi University in Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Education.  She worked as a teacher and studied for Indian Administrative Service.  She came in contact with Kanshi Ram in 1977 and became the part of his team when the Bahujan Samaj Party was launched by him in April 1984 to represent Dalits. Later, she involved herself in full time politics and left teaching.

In 2001, Kanshi Ram announced Mayawati as his successor as she was one of key people in the party.  She was given the responsibility of election campaign from three seats for Lok Sabha elections in 1984, 1985 & 1989 respectively, though it didn’t win, yet, made a good base over the next 5 years and the party won in 1989 and 1991 elections as Dalits are in large number in the state and later they attracted other groups. 

Mayawati first won the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Bijnor and has been three times chief minister of the state. Currently she is serving the fourth term as a chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, when BSP emerged as a clear winner in 2007 state assembly elections.

Mayawati was charged with corruption in 2003 in Taj corridor case.  She is also accused of ordering her BSP MPs to contribute their discretion fund to the party fund illegally.

For the year 2007-2008, she is highest income tax payer among all politicians in India.

She has made significant contribution to bring BSP to be recognized as a national party and increased its base in the states where it was non-existent. BSP stands at third spot after BJP and INC in terms of popularity. In recent developments,  BSP projected Mayawati as the PM candidate of thrid front which triggered huge debate and attracted media attention.

BSP's perfromance in the 2009 General Elections