Mayawati Naina Kumari is an Indian politician and the Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh. She is the president of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which won the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. She was born on January 15, 1956 to Prabhu Das and Ram Rati. Her father was a clerk in the Telecommunications department in Delhi. Mayawati completed her BA and LLB from Kalindi College in Delhi. She also completed her Bachelor of Education (BEd) from Delhi University. She was an active participant in several debate competitions and student movements. She had also studied for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) examinations. Mayawati started her career as a teacher and taught at various schools run by the Delhi administration between 1977 and 1984. She left teaching in 1984 and joined Kanshi Ram, founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Her political career began with the establishment of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on April 14, 1984. The party was formed to represent the Dalits. She was one of the key people in the new party. She contested her first Lok-Sabha election from Kairana, (Muzaffarnagar) as a BSP candidate in December 1984, but could not win. Later, she contested the Lok-Sabha by-election from Bijnor and Hardwar in 1985 and 1987 respectively. She stood second in the Hardwar by-election. She was elected to the Lok-Sabha for the first time in 1989 from the Bijnor seat. She was elected to the Rajya-Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in 1994. Her party supported the Samajwadi party in government formation in Uttar Pradesh during 1993. Their relations came to an end in 1995 after she was attacked at the state guest house in Lucknow on June 2, 1995. Mayawati became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party on June 3, 1995. She stayed in the post only till October 1995 as the political alliance between the BSP and BJP came to an abrupt end. She was again elected from Bilsi (Badaun) and Haraura (Saharanpur) seats during the 1996 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. Later, she resigned the Bilsi seat and retained the Haraura seat. A new political alliance between the BJP and BSP was formed which resulted in a unique government formation in 1997 under an agreement that both parties would have its own chief minister by rotation for six months each.. Under the deal she was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time on March 21, 1997. With the end of her six month’s tenure she withdrew her support to the BJP under the reason that Dalit Act was not properly implemented. She won the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections from Akbarpur seat in Ambedkarnagar district. Kanshi Ram named her as his successor in 2001. Her third tenure as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister commenced on May 3, 2002 and ended on July 25, 2003 after she was charged of corruption by the opposition party. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) under her leadership won 206 seats out of 403 seats in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. She became the Chief Minister for the fourth time on May 13, 2007.

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