Lucknow, March 15 (IANS): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) launched its poll campaign on Friday by taking a pledge to bring the party back to power in 2024.

The party paid homage to its founder Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary on Friday.

The party said that it is planning to mobilise its supporters with a series of programmes and workers’ conferences across the state on the occasion.

A BSP leader said, “The birth anniversary of the party founder will be used to generate enthusiasm among the party cadre. With the Dalit-Muslim-OBC formula, the party is working to increase its tally in the Lok Sabha election.”

It is learnt that Mayawati is giving the final touches to the candidates sent by party coordinators and has already named some candidates, the majority of them being Muslims.

The BSP has already announced that it will go alone in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In 1971, Kanshi Ram quit a government job to launch the All India SC, ST, OBC and Minority Employees Association (BAMCEF).

The aim was to spread the ideals of Bhim Rao Ambedkar among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minority communities.

In 1981, he launched the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS4) for social awakening among the Dalits.

In 1984, he floated the BSP for their political empowerment.

Kanshi Ram also played an important role in the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in the 1993 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.

Later, he broke the alliance and formed the BSP government with the support of the BJP in 1995 when Mayawati became the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for the first time.

After 1995, the BSP again formed the government in 1997, 2002 and 2007 in the state.

In 2007, Mayawati led a majority government on her own after the demise of Kanshi Ram.

After being voted out of power in 2012, the BSP’s downhill journey began and the party has been rapidly losing ground with a section of non-Jatav Dalits opting for the BJP.

The party, at present, has only one member in the UP assembly and a number of its sitting MPs are reaching out to other parties.