Mulayam Singh Yadav, the patriarch of the Samajwadi Party and three-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, died this morning. He was 82.
He was regarded as a key figure in opposition politics, though ill health kept him out of the national spotlight in recent years.
Mr Yadav, affectionately known as “Netaji” by Samajwadi Party supporters and leaders, was also the country’s Defence Minister.
The former wrestler made headlines in Uttar Pradesh politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when protests and agitations over the Mandal Commission, which was established to identify India’s socially or educationally backward classes, were at their height.
Later, Mr Yadav earned a reputation for collaborating not only with his friends, but also with his adversaries, with his association with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati for a brief alliance government in Uttar Pradesh being a prime example.
Mr Yadav’s brush with power at the centre was eventful, in addition to his emergence as a major political force in UP.
He was appointed Defence Minister in the United Front government in 1996. Later, after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the centre, Mr Yadav decided not to support Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, despite initially promising her his party’s support.
When the Samajwadi Party regained power in Uttar Pradesh in 2012, an ailing Mulayam Singh Yadav handed over the reins to his son Akhilesh. However, as family schisms widened, he shocked everyone when he expelled Akhilesh from the party in 2016, just before the crucial 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The father-son duo later reconciled, with Akhilesh emerging as the Samajwadi Party’s powerhouse.
