Mulayam Singh Yadav (1939 – 2022) : The wrestler politician who waged on

The passing away of the Socialist leader with a mass following, and a man of controversies for his many actions and remarks, at the age of 82, surely leaves a void in Uttar Pradesh politics if not in national politics.

Despite his controversial and sexist remarks he was seen as a leader committed to a brand of "secularism" that the Hindu nationist BJP dubbed as vote bank politics and a minority appeasement.  So much so that he used to be referred as "Maulana Mulayam '' at times by his Hindutva opponents.

So from being one who had ordered firing on the kar sevaks in the 1990s in Ayodhya killing many or the firing of Uttarakhand statehood activists in 1994 to trivialising rising incidents of gruesome rapes in India by calling them as mistakes by the boys, he was never out of circulation, even when he lost his old grip on Uttar Pradesh and his son Akhilesh took over the mantle though the father and son were not on same page always.

Born on 22 November 1939, Mulayam Singh Yadav served as UP CM  for three non-consecutive terms besides being Defence Minister of India. The long-time parliamentarian represented the constituency of Mainpuri in the Lok Sabha, and had also earlier served as an MP from Azamgarh and Sambhal constituencies.

The political mentoring of Yadav was under the famous Socialist leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia and Raj Narain.

He was first elected as an MLA of Uttar Pradesh in 1967. Yadav served eight terms there. In 1975, during Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency, he was jailed for 19 long months. He first became a state minister in 1977 and 1980, he became the president of the Lok Dal (People's Party) in Uttar Pradesh which became a part of the Janata Dal (People's Party) afterwards. In 1982, he was elected leader of the opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and held that post until 1985. When the Lok Dal party split, Yadav launched the Krantikari Morcha party.

Mulayam became the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for the first time in 1989.

A 10-term MLA and a seven-term MP, Mulayam served as the Chief Minister of the state for three terms until he made way for his son Akhilesh Yadav in 2012.

In 1992, he founded his own Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party). He later forged an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (Mayawati's party) to halt the BJP and had also once became a chief minister of Uttar Pradesh with the support of Congress and Janata Dal.

He also remained a bitter foe of Mayawati after a guest house episode on June 2, 1995 when Mayawati was allegedly assaulted by the Samajwadi Party men after she withdrew support to Mulayam government and joined hands with the BJP.

He was opposed to the formation of Uttarakhand carved out of Uttar Pradesh and he was blamed for the  Muzaffarnagar Oct 2 , 1994 firing by statehood activists.

Mulayam's political career was marred with controversies too.

Mulayam Singh Yadav had admitted that he had ordered the shooting of kar sevaks during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in Ayodhya in the 1990s. On 30 Oct 1990 when thousands of Ram Temple activists (kar sevaks) had gathered in Ayodhya and were marching toward the Ram temple he had ordered firing on them after the baton charges failed. Many were killed.

After 2012 Delhi gangrape case, Mulayam triggered a row by terming rape as "mistakes" by "boys". In 2014 at the height of Badaun gangrape controversy, he even opposed capital punishment for rape and stated “Ladke hain, galti ho jati hai (Boys make mistakes)”. He followed up with a similar remark on "gangrape" in 2015 too.

The feud in the family came to fore after Akhilesh became the Chief Minister surpassing his uncle Shivpal Yadav and the matter went from bad to worse with father and son resorting to expulsions and stripping each other of positions. The legacy of nepotism in Samajwadi Party also came to fore over and over.

Mulayam Singh Yadav was married twice. His son Akhilesh is from his first wife Malti Devi who died in 2003.

His second wife is Sadhana Gupta though the media and people officially came to know of her presence  in 2007 when he had to file an affidavit on his income in the Supreme Court.  He has a stepson-Prateek Yadav- from his second wife's earlier marriage.

In a striking remark back in 2019, Mulayam had said he wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the prime opponent of SP, to return to power.

(Text: Sujoy Dhar and Souvik Ghosh)

(Images: UNI and Facebook/Narendra Modi)