Vinay Gautam, 66, standing outside Gate No. 2 of the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, Lucknow’s sprawling convention centre, on March 13 urged a small group of youth to go inside and listen to the speakers at a political gathering.

He told the people, “How many times will you get an opportunity to hear about the great Kanshi Ram? These people are not only celebrating his birth anniversary but also discussing his agenda and political views.”

“You are here only because of him (Kanshi Ram) and (BR) Ambedkar,” Gautam said. he said, scolding them for their lack of awareness. “Nowadays you people fail to understand these important things,” he said.

Gautam, a Dalit activist who worked with Kanshi Ram in the 1990s, was among thousands constitutional convention (Constitutional Conference) was organized by the Congress Party at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow, a venue where political meetings, art exhibitions and events like weddings are held.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram will turn 92 on March 15 this year. It’s not a historic birthday, but his legacy has dominated political discourse in Uttar Pradesh over the past two weeks. Leaders of all political parties took his name and described him as “a symbol of Dalit social and caste groups”.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that Kanshi Ram be awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously.

Samajwadi Party (SP), once a staunch rival of BSP in UP, also celebrated Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary in the district offices and headquarters.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said on March 4, “Kanshi Ram is a true symbol of marginalized social groups. We will carry forward the mission started by her.” backward (backward), Dalit, and minority (minority) people.

However, despite the agenda of political parties, Gautam is happy. He said, “This shows the influence and relevance of the man. Even 20 years after his death, more than 4,000 people have come to listen to him.”

But constitutional conventionGandhi described the late leader as a warrior who fought all his life for social justice. Gandhi said, if India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had been alive during the time of Kanshi Ram, Congress would have made him the Chief Minister.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) is using Kanshi Ram’s name to reach out to Dalits,” Gautam said. “But at least Rahul Gandhi is trying to build a bridge with the community by admitting his party’s shortcomings,” he said in the same breath.

When Nehru was Prime Minister, Congress saw four CMs of UP, all from upper castes.

By the time of his death in 2006, Kanshi Ram’s name was associated with uniting the Bahujans (marginalized majority), including the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes (OBC) and minorities.

The Scheduled Caste population in Uttar Pradesh is approximately 21%, the minorities are estimated to be around 20% and the OBC population is estimated by political parties to be up to 40%. “Kanshi RamYes“The idea was to transform the Bahujan community from voters to voters,” Gautam said.

mobilization on identity

Born in a Ramdasia Sikh family in Rupnagar district of Punjab, Kanshi Ram joined government service in Pune in the late 1950s, where he later claimed that he witnessed discrimination against Dalit employees. During this time, he started reading lawyer-cum-activist-cum-social reformer BR Ambedkar with his book. abolition of caste, To make a special impact. Deeply influenced by Ambedkar’s writings, he adopted the call to “educate, agitate and organize”.

In the mid-1960s, he felt disillusioned with the leadership of the Republican Party of India, which represented marginalized castes, and founded the All India Backward and Minority Community Employees Federation (BAMCEF) in 1978.

In 1981, he formed another social organization with the aim of consolidating the Dalit vote, known as Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti or DS4. When he founded the BSP, he said that if 50% of the Bahujans united and formed a coalition, it would be possible to establish a government.

MP and founder of the social group Bhim Army, Chandra Shekhar Azad, whose political party is called Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), echoes Kanshi Ram’s slogan: “The greater the number, the greater will be his participation.” A statement in favor of proportional representation, which is perhaps the most popular slogan used by political leaders of all parties even today.

Ajit Kumar Jha, an Oxford University researcher who closely followed Kanshi Ram’s politics in the 1990s, said, “It has become a sine qua non of representational politics, reflecting modern demands for caste census and proportional representation in elections.”

However, the BSP failed to gain ground in other states. In 1989, the party won 13 out of 425 seats in the UP Assembly and four out of 543 seats (three in UP and one in Punjab) in the Lok Sabha elections the same year. In the 1992 Punjab Assembly election, the party won nine out of 117 seats with more than 16% of the votes, but could win only one seat in the next election. BSP’s appeal was to Dalits in UP

“The real legacy of KanshiramYes It is building a new India on the ideology of Constitution and social justice. He lived according to the thoughts of Buddha, Kabir, Ravidas, Phule and Ambedkar,” said Laxman Yadav, an activist.

It is this legacy that other parties are now trying to claim. Umesh Chaudhary, a Lucknow-based SP worker, said, “Our party’s PDA is what Kanshi Ram mentioned about the Bahujan Samaj. We speak for the oppressed and the marginalised.”

Another SP leader Amike Jammee said, “At a time when atrocities on Dalits, OBCs and minorities are at their peak under the BJP rule, Kanshi Ram’s thoughts and struggles become more relevant.”

After Babri Masjid, BSP and SP got a chance for alliance in the 1993 assembly elections in UP. “Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, Jai Shri Ram flew in the air,” indicating the coming together of the Bahujans.

Under Kanshi Ram’s guidance, the BSP formed governments in UP three times with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Mayawati was the chief minister. Only in 2007 did the BSP succeed in forming a government without the support of the BJP, after which it witnessed a rapid decline. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BSP got 27.42% votes and won 20 seats, while in 2024 its vote share dropped to 9.39%.

Symbolism and pushback

In symbolic steps, the BSP government built parks, memorials and universities dedicated to icons like Dr BR Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram. “These statues resulted in a feeling that people from our social group contributed equally to the building of the Indian republic,” says Mohan Ram, 62, a BSP voter who attended most of Kanshi Ram’s rallies in Lucknow.

Over the years, many of these statues have been vandalized, with activists saying that breaking statues symbolizes the restlessness and fear of feudal forces. BJP is in power since 2017.

“Baba Saheb and Kanshi RamYes Not just historical personalities. They are symbols of equality, justice and self-respect. These incidents cannot simply be dismissed as acts of anti-social elements, but should be seen as a blow to social justice,” says Laxman.

Manindra Nath Thakur, a political scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, says, “The challenge for any party is whether it can expand its social base. The BSP failed in this. I traveled with Kanshi Ram in Madhya Pradesh during the 1993 assembly elections. He used to eat at the homes of party workers like a family member.”

He says that in the latter part of his life, Kanshi Ram moved from the “identity-based politics of the 1990s” to the “culture-centric politics of the early 2000s”.

Congress starts 45 days on October 9, 2025 dalit pride dialogue (Dalit Gaurav Samvad) On the death anniversary of Kanshi Ram, meetings and conferences were organized in the localities with high population of Scheduled Castes. More than 500 such meetings were held across UP

On March 15, Congress also organized statewide programs to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Dalit icon. Congress leader Anil Yadav says, “Our party has been clear from the beginning that we want an egalitarian, democratic society. Kanshi Ram’s ideas fit the bill to achieve this, so we celebrate and follow him.”

Lucknow journalist Asad Rizvi says that all these steps are to bring Dalits under the umbrella of Congress.

At a public rally on November 4, 2025, Gandhi pointed out how “10%” of the population controls key institutions, and tribals, SCs, OBCs and minorities have little representation in private companies, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and the armed forces. “This is what Kanshi Ram said throughout his life with the aim of uniting the marginalized people,” says Rizvi.

Meanwhile, Mayawati said on Twitter that she is the “sole heir” and that SP and Congress are anti-Dalit.

Under the Bharat Alliance in the 2024 parliamentary elections, a section of Bahujan voters supported the alliance to win 43 out of 80 seats.

mayank.kumar@thehindu.co.in