Dinanath Bhaskar (born 10 March 1963)[citation needed] is an Indian politician active in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Once a close associate of Kanshi Ram, he was a founding member of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and was Minister for Health during the state's coalition government of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP in 1993. He quit the BSP to join the SP in 1996, rejoined the BSP around 2009 and in 2015 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Once a close associate of Kanshi Ram,[1] Dinanath Bhaskar was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from the Chandauli constituency in 1993 on a BSP ticket.[2] Around that time he was noted as a controversial character in the caste-ridden politics of Uttar Pradesh, much disliked by upper castes for his alignment with Dalits and other minorities and his exhortations to them to become militant.[3]
Bhaskar left the BSP after Mayawati accused Mulayam Singh Yadav of trying to induce support from Bhaskar.[citation needed] Standing as an SP candidate in the 1996 assembly elections, he lost the contest in the Bhadohi constituencytoPurnmasi Pankaj of the BJP.[4][a] He then successfully contested the 2002 elections in the same constituency to become a Member of the Legislative Assembly for a second time. He lost the seat to the BSP candidate, Archana Saroj, in 2007[5] and left the party after being denied a Vidhan Sabha ticket in a 2009 by-election. He then re-joined the BSP and was made Coordinator of Allahabad zone, Mirzapur zone and Varanasi Zone respectively.[citation needed]
Bhaskar resigned from the BSP on 4 April 2015, accusing it of selling its election candidacies,[6] and joined the BJP one month later.[7] He won the Aurai constituency in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections as a BJP candidate.[8]
