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Mulayam Singh Yadav, an astute politician who once nursed PM ambitions
Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav is now into the fifth decade of his career that began when he was elected an MLA in 1967 at the age of 28.
Mulayam Singh Yadav almost became the prime minister in 1996. The Samajwadi Party positioned him as the prime ministerial candidate again in 2014 and this year, he has said he is no longer a contender for the top job.
When the United Front was about to form a government in 1996, Mulayam’s name was floated by a senior front leader for the post of the prime minister. However, Lalu Prasad Yadav opposed it and Mulayam, a few years ago, in a rally in Lucknow, blamed the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader for missing the opportunity.
He is now into the fifth decade of his career that began when he was elected an MLA in 1967 at the age of 28.
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He founded the Samajwadi Party in 1992 and turned into a giant regional political party. However, Mulayam now is no longer the national president of the outfit that he founded as the feud between his son Akhilesh Yadav and brother Shivpal Yadav over the party’s rein threatened to split.
For two-and-a-half years, he did a balancing act between Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal. Mulayam has now clearly sided with his son and Shivpal is now the national president of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L).
His son took over the party’s control in January 2017 and Mulayam has now embraced the Akhilesh-initiated alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). One of the proposers for Mulayam’s nomination for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat was BSP leader Shubham Singh.
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Mulayam who, while aspiring for the PM’s post in 2014, had said in his ‘Desh Bachao, Desh Banao’ rally that Mayawati was his biggest mistake.
“She was born in politics because of my mistake. A senior leader (a reference apparently to the BJP’s veteran leader LK Advani) had challenged me to come back to power in UP (after the disputed structure in Ayodhya was demolished),” he had said.
This came after the newly-founded SP had once entered into a pre-poll alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party and Mulayam managed to become the chief minister for the second time and succeeded in keeping the BJP out of power.
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The demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya in 1993 and incidents before and after played an important role in Mulayam’s political career. He was the chief minister when he had ordered a police firing on kar sewaks in Ayodhya in 1990 after he had famously said, “Parinda bhi par nahin maar sakega (there will be so much security at the structure that not even a bird would be able to flutter there)”.
Mulayam turned Backwards and Muslims into SP’s vote bank and there was a time when he was often referred to as ‘Mulla Mulayam’ for being the champion of the cause of the minority community.
From wrestling to politics
Mulayam’s entry into politics had its origin in a wrestling match. Mulayam was participating in a match in Mainpuri and impressed Nathu Singh, the then MLA of Jaswantnagar in Mainpuri with his skills and resilience.
Nathu Singh picked up Mulayam as his protege in politics and fielded him as the candidate on his Jaswantnagar assembly seat on Sanyukta Socialist Party ticket and shifted to another.
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Mulayam has since been the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice -- 1989-91, 1993-95 and 2003-2007. He also served as the defence minister in the United Front government from 1996 to 1998.
Mulayam has been an MLA from Jaswant Nagar seven times and won the parliamentary polls from Mainpuri, Sambhal, Kannauj, and Azamgarh. He won Mainpuri four times in 1996, 2004, 2009 and 2014, twice from Sambhal in 1998 and 1999, and Kannauj in 1999 and Azamgarh in 2014. He contested twice on two seats and won both - Sambhal and Kannauj in 1999, and Azamgarh and Mainpuri in 2014. He vacated both of them later.
In 2012, when his party attained full majority for the first time since its inception, Mulayam installed Akhilesh as the chief minister.
Mulayam’s cousin Ramgopal Yadav, brother Shivpal Yadav, son Akhilesh Yadav, nephews Dharmendra Yadav and Akshaya Yadav, daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav, and grandnephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav are in politics. He was born to Murti Devi and Sughar Singh on November 22, 1939, in Saifai village of Etawah district of UP.
The family feud between Akhilesh and Shivpal for the control over the party was one of the low points for Mulayam and ultimately culminated into the complete transfer of power to son from the father when Akhilesh on January 1, 2017, became the party’s national president as well.
Mulayam, the 79-year-old SP candidate from Mainpuri for the Lok Sabha election 2019, continues to be an astute and enigmatic politician.
