With the birth anniversary of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram, March 15, just days away, a familiar but politically loaded question is resurfacing in Uttar Pradesh’s discourse: “Kiske Kanshi Ram (whose is Kanshi Ram)?”
From the Congress to the Samajwadi Party (SP) to Dalit leader and Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) Chandrashekhar Azad, and the Bahujan Samaj Party itself, almost every political formation in the state is seeking to invoke the legacy of the leader, who is seen to have reshaped Dalit politics in north India.
The renewed competition comes as parties recalibrate their outreach to Dalits ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
The latest entrant in this jostle is Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Increasingly vocal on issues such as caste census, reservation and social justice, Gandhi is expected to invoke Kanshi Ram’s legacy during his outreach in Lucknow on March 13. Congress leaders say the effort is part of a broader attempt by the party to reconnect with the Dalit support base it once commanded before the rise of the BSP.
“For the Congress, invoking Kanshi Ram carries particular significance. The party lost a large portion of its traditional Dalit support in Uttar Pradesh after the rise of the BSP in the 1990s. Gandhi’s outreach — centred on social justice, caste census and representation — is widely seen as an attempt to reclaim some of that political space,” a Congress leader said.
The symbolism is not accidental. Kanshi Ram’s slogan — “Jiski jitni sankhya bhari, uski utni bhagidari (the greater a group’s population, the greater its share (in power or representation)” — mirrors the language Gandhi has been using while advocating social justice, a caste census, and proportional representation, especially his “jitni abaadi, utna haq (Rights proportional to numbers)” slogan.
Congress leaders pointed out that the party had launched a campaign among Scheduled Castes (SCs) on Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary two years ago. This year, Gandhi is expected to mark the occasion by interacting with the party’s Dalit leaders as well as representatives from social sectors and intellectual circles.
Echoes in SP
Similar echoes can be seen in the political messaging of the SP. Kanshi Ram’s idea of the “Bahujan” social coalition is often compared to the SP’s more recent formulation of Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (backward, Dalit, minorities) plank, which yielded rich dividends in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The party hopes that its PDA plank will help consolidate votes in its favour ahead of the Assembly elections.
“Kanshi Ram spoke of the “Bahujan” — a broad alliance of Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and minorities. Today, SP’s PDA formula is widely seen as drawing from the same social arithmetic Kanshi Ram articulated,” said an SP leader.
Party leaders also say Kanshi Ram’s legacy remains relevant even for parties such as the SP despite past political friction. During earlier SP governments, there were allegations that institutions named after Kanshi Ram had been renamed. Yet the influence of the social coalition he envisioned continues to shape political strategies. On March 15, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has planned events in Lucknow.
A total of 84 Assembly seats of the state’s 403 are reserved for SCs. In the 2022 polls, the BJP won 58 of these seats while the SP 16 while the Congress failed to win even a single of these seats.
Of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP won eight of the state’s 17 SC-reserved seats while the Congress won one. The SP emerged victorious in seven.
Meanwhile, BSP chief Mayawati is expected to observe the anniversary on March 15 through party programmes, while Azad is likely to hold a rally around the anniversary in Agra.
Each of these initiatives reflects an attempt to connect with Kanshi Ram’s ideological and social base — particularly Dalits and other marginalised groups.
The scramble for the BSP founder’s legacy is striking as Kanshi Ram had sharply criticised most mainstream political parties during his lifetime, positioning the BSP as an independent vehicle for Bahujan assertion. Yet decades later, leaders across these very parties are invoking his ideas and political symbolism.
One reason for this lies in the wide network of leaders who once worked with Kanshi Ram. According to a Congress leader, more than 50 influential politicians in Uttar Pradesh today, including MPs, MLAs and ministers, were at some point associated with Kanshi Ram or the Bahujan movement he built. Among them are Brajesh Pathak of the BJP, Ram Achal Verma and Lalji Verma, as well as Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Others include former Uttar Pradesh Congress president Brij Lal Khabri.