What was the primary objective of the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF).
(1) It sought 50% reservation for the Minority Communities
(2) It demanded the scrapping of the Mandal Commission
(3) It was in favour of political power to the 'bahujan' - the SC, ST, OBC and Minorities.
(4) It sought reservations for women in the industrial sector

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The 1980s also saw the rise of the political organisation of the Dalits. In 1978 the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) was formed. This organisation was not an ordinary trade union of government employees. It took a strong position in favour of political power to the ‘bahujan’ – the SC, ST, OBC and minorities. It was out of this that the subsequent Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti and later the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerged under the leadership of Kanshi Ram. The BSP began as a small party supported largely by Dalit voters in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But in 1989 and the 1991 elections, it achieved a breakthrough in Uttar Pradesh. This was the first time in independent India that a political party supported mainly by Dalit voters had achieved this kind of political success.