New Delhi: The battle to claim the late Kanshi Ram’s political legacy in Uttar Pradesh has intensified before the 2027 assembly elections, as several major political parties prepare to mark his 15 March birth anniversary on a grand scale this year.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder, Kanshi Ram, is considered a Dalit icon in the state. His anniversary celebration especially assumes significance before the polls, considering that 20 percent of the state’s voters are Dalits.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is set to visit Lucknow on 13 March to attend the ‘Samajik Parivartan Diwas’ event memorialising Kanshi Ram. The programme is being organised by the party’s Other Backwards Classes’ and Scheduled Castes’ wings. This will be the first time that the party is holding a major event dedicated to Kanshi Ram with Rahul Gandhi in attendance.
After addressing this public event on 13 March in Lucknow, Rahul Gandhi is also likely to be present at a 15 March Delhi event marking Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary. Party leaders say the event will signal the beginning of the Congress’s campaign outreach for the 2027 UP assembly elections.
On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party, the main opposition party in the state, has directed its district units to celebrate Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary as ‘PDA Divas’, in line with its political plank of PDA—Pichhda, Dalits, and Alpsankhyaks.
The BSP has called for a “Lucknow Chalo Abhiyaan” on 15 March, as a part of which party workers from across the state will gather at Kanshi Ram Smarak Sthal to pay tribute to its founder. Party supremo Mayawati is likely to address the gathering.
On the same day, the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), which is led by Chandrashekhar Azad, has planned a ‘maharally’ in Barabanki.
Though the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has not officially announced any major programmes, its SC wing has called on party workers to pay tributes to Kanshi Ram across districts.
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Dalits votes: A poll plank
Dalits, at over three crore of the state’s more than 12 crore voters, constitute around 20 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s electorate, according to the 2024 Lok Sabha figures. They have significant influence in nearly 120-130 of the state’s 403 assembly constituencies. Of 403 seats in UP, over 84 are reserved.
Speaking to ThePrint, Anil Yadav, general secretary of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, said, “We are organising a major event dedicated to Manyawar Kanshi Ram Sahab. He was a social reformer, and we acknowledge his beliefs and ideals. Earlier, we marked his birth anniversary at the local level, but this time it will be a large programme addressed by our leader, Rahul Gandhi.”
Mithai Lal Bharti, national president of the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vahini in the Samajwadi Party, said, “Kanshi Ram ji was certainly the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party, but he was also a key pillar of the Bahujan movement and a social reformer. He cannot be confined to one party. People across parties regard him as an icon, which is why we are celebrating his birth anniversary as PDA Divas.”
Until recently, it was largely the Bahujan Samaj Party that observed the birth and death anniversaries of Kanshi Ram each year, but its continuous poor performance in elections has left the founder’s legacy up for other claims. In the last 2022 UP assembly elections, the BSP’s vote share had plunged to 13 percent, dropping below its 22.23 percent in 2017—a decline that began in 2012, when the party secured just 25.9 percent of the votes.
Then in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the SP drew support from a sizeable portion of Dalit voters, after the ‘Samvidhan Bachao Abhiyan’.
Now, all parties have stepped up efforts to woo the community.
According to Chandrashekhar Azad, chief of Bhim Army and Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), “Manyawar Kanshi Ram dedicated his entire life to the Bahujan mission. We are the only party that truly follows his ideology; our party’s name itself carries his legacy. Our lives are dedicated to his mission. Other parties, particularly Congress and the Samajwadi Party, are merely trying to copy us. But the public knows who his real well-wishers are.”
UP-based political analyst Shilp Shikha Singh, who has worked extensively on caste politics, said, “As the Bahujan Samaj Party weakens, all political parties are eyeing Dalit votes and are therefore trying to associate themselves with the political legacy of Kanshi Ram ahead of the 2027 UP assembly elections. Most parties have already extensively used the image and name of B.R. Ambedkar in posters and political slogans; now Kanshi Ram has become the new point of reference for them. Ironically, when he was alive, many of these parties had opposed him. That is how politics works.”
Another analyst, Professor Kaviraj of University of Lucknow, said, “This is a moment when the BSP must realise that if it leaves political space vacant, other parties will occupy it. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance managed to secure a significant share of Dalit votes, and the ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ narrative played a role in mobilising this support. Naturally, they would not miss the opportunity.”
“After holding events in the name of Ambedkar, they are now trying to reach out to Dalits by invoking Kanshi Ram, as well. Their strategy also appears aimed at attracting those BSP workers or core cadre who were associated with Kanshi Ram’s movement. A large number of them, perhaps 70-80 percent, are still active, so this seems to be a broader political strategy,” Professor Kaviraj added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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