Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram named Mayawati his successor in 2001. She was elected as the national president of the party for the first term in 2003. (Image: Instagram)
In June 1995, Mayawati became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. Then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao described her as a ‘miracle of democracy’. (Image: Instagram)
She served her first term as Chief Minister from June 1995 to October 1995, the second from March 1997-September 1997, and the third from 2002-03. (Image: Instagram)
In 1997 and in 2002 she became the chief minister of UP with outside support from the BJP. She remained in office only for a year till 2003 after the BJP withdrew its support. (Image: Instagram)
In 2012, she became the first Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister to complete full five years in office (2007-2012) after 1960. (Image: Instagram)
Mayawati is the first female Chief Minister from the Scheduled Caste. She is seen as a Dalit icon by millions and fondly referred to as Behenji. (Image: Instagram)
After losing the 2012 assembly election to the Samajwadi Party, she resigned from her post as party leader in March. She was elected to the Rajya Sabha later that month. (Image: Instagram)
In 2018, she resigned from Rajya Sabha complaining that her voice was being muzzled after she was told not to stretch the time allotted for her speech on atrocities against Dalits in Saharanpur. (Image: Instagram)
