Babu Singh Kushwaha (born 7 May 1966) is an Indian politician in

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He was one of

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...

's most trusted man and a senior member of her cabinet. Now he is the chairman of the Jan Adhikar Party.

Political career

Kushwaha has worked for the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...

. He was for years perceived as the closest to Mayawati. He was a member of

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad'') is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh, a state in India. Uttar Pradesh is one of the six states in India, where the state legislature is ...

, and cabinet minister twice. Kushwaha was the second most powerful person in the

. All changed after the successive murders of two medical officers in Lucknow blew the lid off the giant National Rural Health Mission scam. He had held the portfolio of Family Welfare and Mining Department before resigning. Kushwaha joined

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

in presence of senior leaders

Vinay Katiyar Vinay Katiyar (born 11 November 1954) is a politician and the founder-president of Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in India. He has served as an All India General Secretary of the B ...

and Surya Pratap Shahi, but his induction resulted in voices of dissent in the party, after which he wrote a letter to the BJP national president

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra who is the current Minister for Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways cur ...

requesting him to suspend until membership until proven innocent. Kushwaha formed the political party Jan Adhikar Party.

2022 Uttar Pradesh elections

In the UP election 2022, in a coalition with

Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha The Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha is a Political Alliance of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Jan Adhikar Party of Babu Singh Kushwaha, Rashtriya Parivartan Morcha of Waman Meshram, Bahujan Mukti Party, Bhartiya Vanchit Samaj Party and Janata ...

contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections. Party did not manage to win any seats in the elections and got less than 1% of votes in

Political journey

Kushwaha belonged to a farming family in Pakhrauli village of

Banda district Banda District may refer to: * Banda District, India, a district in Uttar Pradesh, India * Banda District, Ghana Banda District is one of the twelve districts in Bono Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Tain D ...

, graduated in 1985. After this, he started his life by putting a dump in

Atarra Atarra is a town and a municipal board in Banda district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located at a distance of 32 km from Banda. The town is divided into 25 wards. Geography Atarra is located at and has an average eleva ...

. In April 1988, he came in contact with BSP founder

Kanshi Ram Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar or Saheb, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste ...

. Kanshi Ram called him to Delhi. Kushwaha had gone to Delhi dreaming of trying his political fortune, but

made him an employee of the BSP office. Even 6 months would not have passed in the BSP office of Delhi that he was promoted and sent to do organization work in Lucknow office. When there was an alliance between

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; translation: ''Socialist Party'', founded 4 October 1992) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India, headquartered in New Delhi but mainly based in Uttar Pradesh, with significant presence in other states as w ...

and BSP in 1993, Babu Singh was made District President of Banda. After this,

called him to Lucknow and entrusted him with the responsibility of telephone operator in the BSP office. In 2003 also, Babu was again sent to the

and when the BSP government was formed for the third time, he was made the Minister of Panchayati Raj. In 2007, when BSP came to power with an absolute majority, Kushwaha got important departments like minerals, appointments, cooperatives. When the Department of Family Welfare was formed, this department was also handed over to him.

Political career

2022 Uttar Pradesh elections

Political journey

References

Further reading