Uttar Pradesh | Age of Kanshi Ram
As Congress and SP back a Bharat Ratna for the iconic BSP founder, UP's drifting Dalit vote is in focus for 2027
In Uttar Pradesh, Kanshi Ram seems to have of late become an object of reverence across parties. One of the most influential architects of Dalit mobilisation in North India, the strategic energies of his remarkable life in politics were entirely in the service of the formation he created from scratch, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). His legacy, after he passed on in 2006, was deemed its exclusive property. But that looks set to change.
In Uttar Pradesh, Kanshi Ram seems to have of late become an object of reverence across parties. One of the most influential architects of Dalit mobilisation in North India, the strategic energies of his remarkable life in politics were entirely in the service of the formation he created from scratch, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). His legacy, after he passed on in 2006, was deemed its exclusive property. But that looks set to change.
As the state edges towards the 2027 assembly election, everyone wants a piece of the Kanshi legacy that once had a single, undisputed claimant in BSP chief Mayawati. Across the spectrum, parties are reaching back to invoke his ideas, his struggles and his symbolism, each trying to position itself as equal inheritors.
A UNIVERSAL ICON
The latest round of invocations began in March, when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said in Lucknow that, had Jawaharlal Nehru been alive, he would have chosen Kanshi Ram as chief minister of UP. Addressing a ‘samvidhan sammelan’, Rahul described Kanshi as a leader who transformed how marginalised communities engaged with politics. He acknow-ledged the Congress’s own failures had created the need for a leader like Kanshi.
Drawing a line from Kanshi to B.R. Ambedkar, he echoed the essential ideas put out by the icons to reiterate the Congress’s demand for a nationwide caste census as a means to secure representation for these communities in institutions and the corporate sector.
Two days later, Rahul upped the pitch by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging that Kanshi Ram be awarded the Bharat Ratna. The letter, timed with the BSP founder’s birth anniversary, said the award would be long overdue recognition matching Kanshi’s impact on India’s democratic landscape. Dalit thinkers and activists have been raising the demand for years, he pointed out.
The Congress was not alone. The Samajwadi Party, too, organised programmes across the state on Kanshi Ram’s anniversary, invoking his ideas of social justice. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav harked back to a phase in UP politics when Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav had joined hands. “You might remember that, at one point, they together fought the BJP and defeated it. Only after that did the BJP start bringing Babasaheb Ambedkar’s portraits to every event. His followers want that he be accorded due respect with the Bharat Ratna. We are saying the same,” Akhilesh told the media.
SUITORS FOR DALIT VOTE
The timing is not coincidental. The bipartisan outreach comes at a time when the BSP’s organisational and electoral grip appears diminished. As the 2024 general election indicated, the Dalit vote, roughly 21.1 per cent of UP’s electorate, is increasingly open to persuasion. Coalescing it is a need, for the vote is internally divided across communities such as the Jatavs (around 11.7 per cent, once the BSP’s core vote), Pasis (3.3 per cent), Valmikis (3.15 per cent), and numerous groups that add up to 66. It’s natural, then, that Kanshi Ram matters.
