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Business News/ Politics / India/  Mulayam Singh Yadav: A pragmatic leader who built UP’s largest political dynasty
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Mulayam Singh Yadav: A pragmatic leader who built UP’s largest political dynasty

A wrestler who broke into politics in 1967, Mulayam has been everywhere from the chambers of the state legislative assembly to the Union cabinet as defence minster

Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
Photo: Hindustan Times

Last week saw fissures in the first family of Uttar Pradesh, signalling a rough time for the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead of the assembly election due in less than six months.

Stepping in to quell the family feud was party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who managed to broker a peace between his son and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and brother Shivpal Yadav.

“As long as I am in the party, there will be no rift," a combative Mulayam Singh told party workers in Lucknow.

An astute politician, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is called “Netaji" by his supporters, is known for his political acumen and negotiation skills.

“The one thing about SP is that whatever Mulayam Singh says or decides is set in stone. He has built the party from scratch and earned this position for himself," says Badri Narayan, a professor at the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

A wrestler who broke into politics by winning a Yadav-dominated assembly seat for the regional Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) in 1967, Mulayam has been everywhere —from the chambers of the state legislative assembly to the Union cabinet as defence minster.

“Mulayam Singh started his political journey as being a part of the socialist movement, he helped build it but his ambition also lay elsewhere. In a way, UP was also the key to Delhi for him," says Narayan.

Yadav was deeply influenced by the socialist ideology of Ram Manohar Lohia, who is considered the guiding light of SP, and he gave up wrestling and a career in teaching to join the socialist leader’s movement during the 1950s.

It was then that he built his base as a grassroots leader and mobilized the other backward classes (OBC), especially Yadavs, who are now the core support base of SP.

It was with the launch of the SP in 1992 that he went on to make the Yadav family the largest political dynasty of UP.

The highlight of Yadav’s career came in 1993 when he along with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly election after the Babri Masjid demolition. This achievement also brought the support of Muslims.

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Published: 19 Sep 2016, 12:01 AM IST
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