Mulayam Singh Yadav

| TNN | Jan 30, 2017, 15:51 IST

Three-time chief minister, chief of the Samajwadi Party and one of India's most powerful politicians - these are some of the titles that Mulayam Singh Yadav proudly holds. Born to a humble farmer Sughad Singh in Saifai in 1939, Mulayam was a wrestler and a teacher before turning into a full-time politician.
Mulayam is famous for jumping ships and shocking his political allies as well as rivals during his long political journey - the result of skills he learned during his wrestling days. He combined these skills with political acumen and India got one of its finest political brains.
Mulayam started his political journey in 1960s after being deeply influenced by Ram Manohar Lohia and his socialist ideology. He became the member of Uttar Pradesh assembly for the first time in 1967 and since then, there has been no looking back. He started as a crusader for farmer rights and was jailed nine times during different agitations. He was also influenced by former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, who used to call him 'Little Napolean' because of Mulayam's shrewdness and the way he dealt with his rivals.
He became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time in 1989. Mulayam later switched loyalty and joined hands with former PM Chandra Shekhar to continue as chief minister with the support of Congress. His government, however, did not last long as Congress withdrew support from Chandra Shekhar and his governments in 1991 resulting in by-elections in which Mulayam lost. In 1992, he formed the Samajwadi Party and joined hands with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party the following year to win the election and become chief minister for the second time. The arrangement, however, soon developed cracks and Mulayam lost power once again. The cracks between SP and the BSP were so deep and visceral that Mulayam created his greatest political adversary in his own home turf of UP in the form of Mayawati. That rivalry shows no signs of abetting even after a quarter of a century.
Mulayam got a chance to become chief minister for the third time in 2003 when BJP pulled out from the alliance government of Mayawati, who had won the election in 2002. Mulayam gathered some independent legislators and smaller parties and became the chief minister. Different media reports hinted towards the role of BJP in this coup. Mulayam was then a Lok Sabha member and contested from Gunnaur to become a member of the state assembly, as mandated by the Constitution. He received 94 per cent of votes - an unbroken record till date. This time, the Samajwadi Party government lasted for four years, but lost the 2007 election to Mayawati.
Mulayam has always maintained a secular image and has been a darling of Muslims who like him because of the shooting orders he gave on the Hindu activists running towards the Babri mosque to raze it in 1991. Saifai, Mainpuri and Kannauj have been his pocket boroughs but his political ambitions took him to central politics when he became the Union defence minister in United Front-led government in 1996. That tenure lasted for nearly two years when the government fell and Mulayam returned to Uttar Pradesh politics. He contested Lok Sabha election from Kannauj in 1999 but later vacated the seat for his son Akhilesh.
Mulayam married twice. Akhilesh is the son from his first wife Malti Devi who died in 2003; he also has a son Prateek from his second wife Sadhana Gupta who came in Mulayam's contact in 1980s. While Akhilesh is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and widely seen as Mulayam's heir, not much is known about Prateek who is into real estate business.
Mulayam has four brothers - Shivpal Yadav, Ratan Singh, Abhay Ram and Rajpal Singh - and a cousin Ram Gopal Yadav who is part of son Akhilesh's camp and engaged in a bitter family feud over Mulayam's legacy which has engulfed the party and UP politics since September 2016.

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