Bahujan Samaj Party

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, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy & Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. The BSP was founded by charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984, who was succeeded by his protégée Mayawati in 2003. The party's political symbol is an elephant. The party was the third most voted-for party in the 2014 Indian general election, but still failed to win any seats in the 16th Lok Sabha. The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Origin of the word Bahujan

The Pali word Bahujan is notably found in the literature of Buddhist texts. Gautama Buddha used this word to guide his disciples to work for the Bahujan Hitay Bahujan Sukhay (tran. Benefit and prosperity of majority people). The word Bahujan also refers to those people who are in the majority. However, the BSP has historically drawn a loyal base of voters from Dalits. It has attempted to grow nationally as well and has met with steady success.

Mukhtar Ansari

Mukhtar Ansari is an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency a record four times. He is the prime accused in the Krishnanand Rai murder case among other crimes, and has pleaded not guilty.

Ansari fought his first Assembly election as a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the next two as an independent. In 2007, he joined BSP and unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election. After BSP expelled him in 2010 for criminal activities, he formed his own party Quami Ekta Dal with his brothers. He won from the Mau seat in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2012.

Early life

Mukhtar Ansari is the grandson of Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, an early president of the Indian National Congress.

In the early 1970s, the government commissioned several development projects in the backward Poorvanchal area. This resulted in the rise of organised gangs that competed with each other to grab the contracts for these projects. Mukhtar Ansari was originally a member of the Makhanu Singh gang. In the 1980s, this gang clashed with another gang led by Sahib Singh, over a plot of land in Saidpur, resulting in a series of violent incidents. Brijesh Singh, a member of Sahib Singh's gang, later formed his own gang and took over Ghazipur's contract work mafia in the 1990s. Ansari's gang competed with him for the control of the ₹ 100 crore contract business, which spanned areas such as coal mining, railway construction, scrap disposal, public works and liquor.