Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) the party which ruled Uttar Pradesh for four times - sometimes through alliances and sometimes on its own - is now struggling for its existence as the opposition party in the state. Year after year, leaders kept on leaving and the party got marginalised. Now, it was left with just three MLAs in the Assembly.
BSP has become a smaller party even from regional ones in 2021. At present Apna Dal-S has 9 MLAs. SBSP has 4 MLAs. While, Congress which has been marginalised in UP for years is also now ahead of BSP with 6 MLAs as BSP is now left with only three MLAs: Syam Sunder Sharma, Umashankar Singh, Azad Arimardan
In year 2007, BSP came to power with full mandate, but in 2012 Bicycle (party symbol of Samajwadi Party) took a lead from Elephant (party symbol of Bahujan Samaj Party). Later in 2017, 'The Modi Wave' also snatched the main opposition tag from BSP. Many pro-poor policies of the BJP government has left an impact at the grassroots level, which according to political analysts, might help BJP to make a dent in BSP's Dalit votes as well.
In 2017, 19 MLAs reached UP state assembly on BSP ticket, but in 2021 MLAs start leaving the party considering its as a sinking vessel. BSP supremo Mayawati sacked several MLAs in disciplinary action against them. Many MLAs shunned the BSP chief by accusing her of deviating from the mission of Babasaheb and Kanshi Ram restricting the total no of MLA's to three.
Parties graph changed after the election
| Party | 2017 | 2021 |
| BJP | 312 | 311 |
| SP | 47 | 45 |
| BSP | 19 | 03 |
| Congress | 07 | 06 |
| Apna Dal | 09 | 09 |
| SPSP | 04 | 04 |
Here are some of the major developments that affected the party badly: