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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
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."