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Mayawati, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and the first dalit woman to hold the post in any Indian state, had her beginnings when she joined active politics when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was formed in 1984.

She served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) as head of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social change to improve the welfare of the weakest strata of Indian society—the Bahujans or Dalits, Other Backward Classes, and religious minorities.

Mayawati's rise from humble beginnings has been called a "miracle of democracy" by P. V. Narasimha Rao, former Prime Minister of India.