Obituary: Kanshi Ram

The founder of India's most powerful lower-caste party, Kanshi Ram, has died of a heart attack. He was 72. Ram died at his official residence in New Delhi, said Mayawati, president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, or BSP.

Ram founded the BSP in 1984 amid growing dissent among India's low-caste Hindus that their interests had been ignored by the country's mainstream political parties.

Although it has a presence across the country, the BSP has a strong following in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.