Mayawati, currently the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, is the first Dalit woman to hold the post in any Indian state. Hailing from Jatav caste, which is at the upper-end of Dalit caste hierarchy, presently she has been increasingly reaching out to Brahmins and other upper castes people and her 2007 landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections is widely hailed as a result of such caste rainbow policies.
Born to father Prabhu Das, a clerk in Telecommunication department and mother Ram Rathi, Mayawati graduated from the Kalindi College in Delhi and studied law in the University of Delhi before taking up a school teacher job. She was greatly influenced by Dalit leader Kanshiram and joined active politics when Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was formed in 1984. Mayawati first won a Lok Sabha seat contesting from Bijnor constituency in 1989. While a Rajya Sabha member, she became chief minister of a short-lived coalition government in Uttar Pradesh in 1995. She again held the post for a short period in 1997. In 2000, Kanshiram announced Mayawati as her successor and she became the chief of the BSP. She again became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for a somewhat longer time in 2002-2003.
In 2001, Mayawati was accused of forcing her MLAs to hand over money from their MLA fund, given for constituency development, to BSP fund. Shortly thereafter 140 corruption cases were filed against her. In 2002, She was again charged with misappropriating Rupees 175 crore in a Taj Corridor project providing tourist facilities in Taj Mahal in Agra. Many eyebrows were raised when Mayawati declared her personal assets worth Rupees 52 crore in 2007.
Despite the corruption charges, Mayawati stormed back to power in 2007 assembly elections winning absolute majority, first by any party since 1991 in Uttar Pradesh. In the elections, she for the first time came out of her Dalit-only vote banks by including upper caste people including Brahmans in her poll arrangements. After her win, she distributed ministerial berths among upper caste people too. This is seen as a major shift in caste politics in India.
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