According to biographer Ajoy Bose, Ram told her: "I can make you such a big leader one day that not one but a whole row of IAS officers will line up for your orders.

Throughout her political career, Mayawati supported reservation in both government and private sectors for backward classes, with an increase in quotas and inclusion of more communities such as religious minorities and economically weak upper castes.

[17][18][19][20][21] In August 2012 a bill was cleared that starts the process of amending the constitution so that the reservation system can be expanded to promotions in state jobs.

[23] Her public meetings have been attended by large audiences, who use slogans such as "Kanshi Ram ka mission Adhoora; karegi Behen Mayawati poora" (Kanshi Ram's unfulfilled mission will be completed by Mayawati) and "Behenji tum sangharsh karo; hum tumhare saath hain" (Sister, go ahead with your struggle; we are with you).

[24] In its first election campaign in 1984, BSP fielded Mayawati for the Lok Sabha (Lower House) seat of Kairana in the Muzaffarnagar district, for Bijnor in 1985, and for Haridwar in 1987.

[25][26] Although BSP did not win control of the house, the electoral experience led to considerable activity for Mayawati over the next five years, as she worked with Mahsood Ahmed and other organisers.

[33] As the Chief Minister, Mayawati gained a reputation for efficient governance[34] and promoting law and order,[35] winning praise even from opposition parties[36][37][38] and other rivals.

[39][40][41][42][43] In 2007, MP Umakant Yadav of her own political party, accused in a land grabbing case, was arrested near her dwelling on her orders.

[60] Uttar Pradesh achieved higher GDP growth rate at 17 per cent[61][62] and lesser crimes under Mayawati regime as compared to previous and successive governments.

Over 18,000 policemen lost their jobs for irregularities in their hiring, and 25 Indian Police Service officers were suspended for their involvement in corruption while recruiting the constables.

[79][80] Mayawati instituted reforms to introduce transparency into the recruiting process, including posting the results of selection exams online.

[84] The Dr Ambedkar Gram Vikas Yojana scheme was launched for supplying water, electricity, and constructing roads in villages with a Dalit majority.

In 2008, Mayawati launched, Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Shahri Garib Awas Yojna, a scheme for building low-cost housing colonies for urban poor with 90,000 low-cost homes under the first round of construction in different towns and cities across the state while a second and a third round were still underway when government ended in 2012 and next government scrapped the scheme including cutting down electricity of these colonies.

[92] On 15 January 2008, Mayawati inaugurated the construction of the 1,047 km Ganga Expressway at the cost of ₹30,000 crore (US$3.5 billion) for joining Ballia to Greater Noida.

[103] Mayawati has seen through to completion of several memorials dedicated to icons of Bahujan Samaj build first time in India, including the Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Green Eco Garden (inaugurated March 2011),[104] the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal and Green Garden (inaugurated October 2011),[105] and the Ambedkar Memorial Park (opened November 2012).

[112] Mayawati dedicated the ₹63.5 crore (US$7.3 million) 286-bed super-specialty Centenary hospital in Lucknow and 50-bed critical care unit at CSMMU[113] and increased salaries of doctors.

[114] Mayawati, in 2007, launched[115] ₹500 crore (US$58 million) Manyawar Kanshiram Multi-speciality Hospital in Greater Noida which started its OPD services in April 2013.

[118] Under Savitri Bai Phule Balika Shiksha Madad Yojna, Mayawati distributed over 10 lakh bicycles among Muslim and poor school girls from 2008 to 2011.

[119][120] After coming to power in 2007, Mayawati wrote letters to the Prime Minister regarding partitioning of Uttar Pradesh into four different states in 2007, in March 2008 and December 2009.

In his 23-page order, he said: "the fact that the Mission Management Board, consisting of officers of both the State and the Central Government, regularly met and discussed the project and the fact that even a sum of ₹ 17 crores was spent through the Central Government public sector undertaking, NPCC, all go to show that the serious offences with which Mayawati and the Minister were charged do not stand scrutiny.

[149][150] On 3 August 2011 the Delhi High court dismissed the central government's appeal against Mayawati, stating that "she has fully discharged her obligations by disclosing the identities of all of her donors, the gifts had been donated by her supporters".

[157] In her tenures as a Chief Minister, Mayawati commissioned the production and public display of several monuments[158] having parks, gallerias, museums,[159] memorials, murals[160] and statues representing Buddhist and Hindu, Dalit/OBC[161] icons like Gautama Buddha, Gadge Maharaj, Ravidas, Kabir, Narayana Guru, Jyotirao Phule, Shahu IV, B. R. Ambedkar, BSP party founder Kanshi Ram, and of herself.

[167] In February 2010 Mayawati's government approved a plan for a special police force to protect the statues, as she feared that her political opponents might demolish them.

[168] In December 2010, her government received permission to continue part of the plan, namely maintenance and completion of Ambedkar Memorial Park.

[166] Despite the existing Supreme Court stay, in October 2011 Mayawati inaugurated the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal and Green Garden, built at a cost of ₹685 crore.

[178] The World Bank sent a letter of complaint on 1 August 2002 to India's central government stating, "We have now learnt that project managers have been replaced within three weeks of assuming office.

She then decreased the number of transfers, stopped creating new posts, and temporarily reduced the level of government spending on furniture and vehicles in response to the allegations.

In 2009, the day was marked by the announcement of welfare schemes targeted towards poor and downtrodden people of the state[187] and, in 2010, by the launch of social programmes with a value of over ₹ 7,312 crore.

[189] She was at number 20 in the I-T department's compilation of the top 200 taxpayers' list with names like Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar.

[190] When BSP workers garlanded Mayawati with currency notes on the occasion of the party's silver jubilee celebrations coinciding with BSP founder Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary on 15 March 2010, Indian news channels and newspapers purported to expose the event as a ‘scandal’ on the presumption that the Chief Minister had publicly committed an act of corruption that was being flaunted openly and declaring that the garland of currency notes was made from money through corrupt means and not from donations of Bahujan Samaj Party supporters as Mayawati, her Ministers and supporters claimed.