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

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, serving as chief of the Jan Adhikar Party and former Family Welfare Minister in the Uttar Pradesh government under Mayawati. He was also one of Behenji’s trusted backroom boys, who besides working at the grassroots looked after the party’s administrative affairs.In the 2024 Indian general election, he won from the Jaunpur Lok Sabha constituency on the symbol of

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; ) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India. It was founded on 4 October 1992 by former Janata Dal politician Mulayam Singh Yadav and is headquartered in New Delhi. It is the third-largest political party in ...

, becoming a member of

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

for the first time.

Background

Kushwaha belonged to a farming family in Pakhrauli village of Banda district, and graduated in 1985. After this, he started his life by putting a dump in Atarra. In April 1988, he came in contact with BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Kanshi Ram called him to Delhi. Within six months, he was promoted and sent to do organization work in the Lucknow office. He became the District President of Banda in 1993. In 2003, he was made the Minister of Panchayati Raj in the BSP government. In 2007, when BSP came to power with an absolute majority, Kushwaha was appointed to important departments like minerals, appointments, and cooperatives. When the Department of Family Welfare was formed, this department was also handed over to him. He was one of the three pillars of the Bahujan Samaj Party when Mayawati was at the peak of her political career along with Swami Prasad Maurya and Nasimuddin Siddiqui.

Political journey

Kushwaha had been a member of

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a 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), along with Religious ...

for 27 years. He was for years perceived as the closest to Mayawati. He was a member of the

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council also known as 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 bicameral, c ...

and was also appointed as a cabinet minister twice. Kushwaha was the second most powerful person in the

. After the successive murders of two medical officers in Lucknow he blew the lid off the giant National Rural Health Mission scam. He had held the portfolio of the Family Welfare, Mining, Panchayati Raj and several other departments before resigning. Kushwaha joined the BJP in the presence of senior leaders Vinay Katiyar and Surya Pratap Shahi, but his induction resulted in voices of dissent in the party, after which he wrote a letter to BJP national president Nitin Gadkari requesting him to suspend his membership until proven innocent. Kushwaha formed the political party Jan Adhikar Party in 2016. His wife Shivkanya Kushwaha contested for Ghazipur Lok Sabha constituency from the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2014 and received 27.82% of votes.

Jan Adhikar Party

Babu Singh Kushwaha founded the Jan Adhikar party on 9 December 2016, with the ideology to provide equal rights to all sections of society according to their population. The party aims to empower all the deprived, exploited, laborers, farmers, poor, and women and to provide them with their rights. The main objective of the party is to release the caste census report and to give a share in all the resources of the country to all the sections in proportion to the population. His Jan Adhikar Party was a part of the coalition Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections. The party did not manage to win any seats in the elections of

2024 General elections

Kushwaha won the 2024 general election from Jaunpur Lok Sabha Constituency on Samajwadi Party Symbol. His Jan Adhikar Party is a part of the INDIA Alliance . After his victory, it was reported that despite being supported by muscleman politician Dhananjay Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Kripa Shankar Singh was unable to take an edge over Kushwaha. He was defeated by over 99,000 votes. Sitting member of parliament and Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Shyam Singh Yadav finished in third position. Soon after his election to Lok Sabha, he was made the deputy leader of Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha by

Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh Yadav (; born 1 July 1973) is an Indian politician and national president of the Samajwadi Party who served as the 20th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Having assumed the chief minister's office on 15 March 2012 at the age of 38, he ...

Background

Political journey

Jan Adhikar Party

2024 General elections

References

Further reading