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Wrestler to people’s leader: Man who wore many hats
Mulayam Singh Yadav enjoyed close and warm relationships across parties – the Congress, of course, but also the BJP.
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It was wrestling that got Mulayam Singh Yadav, 82, who died Monday morning in a hospital in Gurugram, into politics. He was wrestling in a local competition in the early 1960s when then Jaswant Nagar (Mainpuri) MLA, Nathu Singh, was impressed by the young man in his early 20s and got talking to him.
Yadav was deeply political even then. He had developed a keen interest in politics at the age of 15, inspired by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia. Singh was doubly impressed after the conversation; he offered Yadav his own assembly seat Jaswant Nagar (Mainpuri). Yadav took the offer and won the seat as Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) candidate in March 1967. This was the party into which Lohia had merged his own party (Socialist Party-Lohia) in 1965.
Yadav would go on to fight and win eight assembly polls and seven Lok Sabha elections. By the time of the Emergency, Yadav was an MLA again, but this time as part of the Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD), a party founded by the late Charan Singh, another socialist leader who left a huge impression on Yadav. The Emergency heightened his political profile; he went to jail for the first time for staging a protest against then prime minister (PM) Indira Gandhi.
After the 1977 general elections – the BKD had become the Bharatiya Lok Dal by then – the opposition came together to form the Janata Party, and Yadav was one of its young leaders. When the Janata Party imploded, Yadav went on to the surviving fragment headed by Charan Singh, the Lok Dal.
By 1989, he was one of the country’s key leaders, part of the Janata Dal which ousted the Congress from power, and was also CM of Uttar Pradesh (the Janata Dal was supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party then). He was just 50.
Yadav was born on November 22, 1939, in Saifai, a village in Uttar Pradesh (UP)’s Etawah district. He came from a poor rural family. His original aspiration was to become a wrestler, but he ended up becoming a government school teacher after obtaining a master’s degree from Agra University (although he continued to wrestle). And, 22 years after he entered politics, he was the chief minister of India’s most populous state, which also sends the highest number of representatives to the Lok Sabha, and a key leader in the coalition ruling India.
The 1990s were the defining era for Yadav – just as it was for Indian politics. It saw the battle between Mandal (the Mandal Commission report was accepted and gave 27% reservation to backward classes in educational institutions and government jobs) and Kamandal (the BJP’s strong Hindutva push; the name comes from the holy vessel carried by Hindu ascetics).
The tipping point was in 1991 when the BJP withdrew support amid a confrontation over the firing on karsevaks during the Ayodhya, Ram temple movement.
On October 30, 1990, then UP CM Yadav gave an order to the police to open fire at karsevaks (religious volunteers) who had gathered in Ayodhya to march towards the Babri Masjid. The firing led to chaos and a stampede. Police chased down the karsevaks on the streets of Ayodhya.
Another round of clashes erupted on November 2, when the karsevaks came back and resumed their march towards the Babri Masjid adopting a different tactic.
“Ever since, Ayodhya and the temple movement became inextricably linked to Mulayam’s politics as he repeatedly found mention in speeches of BJP leaders, who would describe him as a misled Hindu, allowing him to carve out a Muslim vote bank, which along with his loyal Yadavs, the dominant OBCs, formed the formidable ‘MY’ vote bank that kept Mulayam in political circulation, both in the state as well as in national politics,” said AP Tiwari, a political analyst. The BJP won the polls that followed, and Kalyan Singh was sworn in. In October 1992, Yadav founded the Samajwadi Party; in December of the same year, karsevaks demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The Centre (the Congress was in power by then) dismissed the UP government and declared President’s rule.
Yadav contested the 1993 polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party headed by Mayawati. He became the CM for the second time. His government, however, fell after Mayawati withdrew support in 1995. Thereafter, he turned his focus to central politics. He fought the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, won, and was in the reckoning for the top job in the then United Front government but eventually, Janata Dal’s HD Deve Gowda became the PM while Yadav took charge as the defence minister. Mandal had bested Kamandal. In 2003, Yadav and his SP staged a dramatic comeback into state politics. He cobbled together enough support to become the UP chief minister for the third time in September 2003 and completed the term in 2007.
That year was a turning point in the state for it started a trend that continues to the day, the emergence of single-party majorities.
Yadav enjoyed close and warm relationships across parties – the Congress, of course, but also the BJP. PM Narendra Modi flew to attend the Tilak function at Saifai of Yadav’s grandnephew in 2015. Four years later, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Yadav showered praise on Modi, saying he wished to see him as PM again.
ABOUT THE AUTHORPankaj JaiswalPankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.Read More
- ABOUT THE AUTHORHaidar Naqvi
Haidar Naqvi is an Assistant Editor with the Hindustan Times in Kanpur and has been with the newspaper since May 1997, after beginning his journalism career with The Times of India. Over more than three decades, he has reported on terrorism, internal security, politics, governance and public affairs, with a particular focus on the changing nature of extremist movements in India.From 2008 to 2011, Haidar was part of the Hindustan Times National Reporting Team, contributing to coverage of some of the country's most significant security stories. He was among the reporters who covered the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as they unfolded and continued reporting on the investigation that exposed the conspiracy behind them.His reporting has followed the rise and evolution of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Indian Mujahideen and India's counter-terrorism response, alongside extensive coverage of organised crime and the underworld. He has also reported on Indian Mujahideen serial blasts, the Maoist insurgency, communal riots, parliamentary and assembly elections, and major political developments. Over the years, he has interviewed political leaders, senior police officers, intelligence officials and policymakers, while reporting from communities affected by violence, conflict and public policy.Beyond national security, Haidar has covered politics, minority affairs, governance, wildlife and human-interest stories across Central Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand. A recipient of the coveted Hindustan Times' Star Award, he brings historical perspective, field experience and institutional knowledge to reporting on the intersection of security, governance and society.Read More
- ABOUT THE AUTHORManish Chandra Pandey
Manish Chandra Pandey is a Lucknow-based Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times’ political bureau in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Along with political reporting, he loves to write offbeat/human interest stories that people connect with. Manish also covers departments. He feels he has a lot to learn not just from veterans, but also from newcomers who make him realise that there is so much to unlearn.Read More
