Samajwadi Party (SP) founder and three-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away while undergoing treatment at Medanta hospital in Gurugram on October 10, 2022. He was 82. The SP patriarch’s condition had been ‘quite critical’ for the past few weeks.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrives to enquire about the health condition of former Union Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav at Medanta hospital in Gurugram on October 7, 2022. Mr. Yadav was popularly known as “Netaji” in political circles and maintained good relations with his opponents.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav enquire about Mulayam Singh Yadav’s health condition with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav at the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on October 6, 2022. In the 1990s, two of the immediate protégés of the Mandal moment were politicians who had groomed themselves as socialist champions: Lalu and Mulayam, adherents of the socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia.
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala with Mulayam Singh Yadav at Medanta hospital, in Gurugram on September 7, 2022. Mr. Chautala was also said to have invited Mr. Yadav for Samman Diwas event as a show of strength by Opposition parties for 2024 general elections.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with Mulayam Singh Yadav at Medanta hospital in Gurugram on September 6, 2022. For Mr. Yadav, who had turned down the proposal to merge his party with other outfits belonging to Janata Parivar — including the JD(U) and the RJD — in 2015, Mr. Kumar’s efforts to grow a base in U.P. were not welcomed.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav during voting for the election of the President at Parliament House in New Delhi on July 18, 2022. This was one of his last public appearance.
Mulayam Singh Yadav is seen exchanging greetings with Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati during their joint election campaign rally in Mainpuri on April 19, 2019. Mr. Yadav will also be remembered for the controversies that surrounded him. He never really apologised for the assault allegedly carried out by SP workers on Mayawati in the State guest house in 1996.
Shivpal Yadav with his elder brother and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav after launching his new political outfit Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) following differences with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on December 9, 2018. It was attended by good numbers of his supporters including Mr. Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who has been siding with Mr. Shivpal ever since the family feud became public. Ms. Aparna eventually joined the BJP.
Mulayam Singh Yadav with younger brother Shivpal Yadav at Lohia Trust to mark the death anniversary of Ram Manohar Lohia in Lucknow on October 12, 2018. This was the first time that Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr. Shivpal Yadav were seen together in public ever since the latter distanced himself from the Samajwadi Party. In 2012, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav decided to pass on the baton to his son Akhilesh Yadav, leading to a feud in the Yadav family over a progressive makeover of the plebeian party.
Noted poets Gopal Das Neeraj (right) and Uday Pratap Singh (extreme left) are being honoured by Mulayam Singh Yadav with Sahitya Shiromani Samman award for promoting Hindi literature, in Lucknow on June 6, 2015. Mr. Yadav was among the first leaders who publicly stood for the promotion of Hindi and launched the Yash Bharti awards to acknowledge the works of eminent personalities of the State who excelled in the field of literature, arts, and industry.
An undated photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. After seeing the plight of his contemporaries like Lalu Prasad, he made peace with the ruling dispensation by praising PM Narendra Modi in the Parliament in 2019.
The then Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu — Narendra Modi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and J. Jayalalithaa — at the 51st National Development council meeting in New Delhi on June 27, 2005.
Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exchanges greetings with then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav at the 51st National Development Council meeting in New Delhi on June 27, 2005. Launching a scathing attack on Mr. Singh, Mr. Yadav, in October 2009, described him as the “weakest Prime Minister” the country had ever produced.
(From right) Then Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, The Hindu Group Director N. Ram, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat and then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav at the National Integration Council meeting in New Delhi on August 31, 2005.
The Samajwadi Party chief during a rally at Mughalsarai in Chandauli district. The impertinent and sexist comments where he almost condoned the perpetrators of rape and gang rape and his opposition to reservation for women in Parliament continued to haunt him, but he refused to change his tone.
Mulayam Singh Yadav along with SP leaders Mohammed Azam Khan and Amar Singh in 2003. He struck a fine balance between Amar Singh, his link to big corporates, and Azam Khan, his bond with conservative Muslim.
Mualayam Singh Yadav with the then NDA presidential candidate Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. While, Mr. Yadav remained critical of the BJP’s Hindutva politics, he sided with the saffron party at times when he surprised everyone by supporting the BJP in 2002 in its bid to make A.P.J. Abdul Kalam the President of India.
The Samajwadi Party president displays his letter staking claim to form the next government in Uttar Pradesh on February 28, 2002. He first became CM in 1989 and subsequently in 1992 and 2002. In 2012, when the SP won the elections, he handed over the reign to his son Akhilesh Yadav.
In this December 2001 picture, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mulayam Singh are seen at an Iftar Party hosted by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan in New Delhi. A firm believer in the saying that there are no permanent friends and enemies in politics, Mr. Yadav’s somersaults to preserve the interests of the party, often baffled political analysts. In 1999, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost the trust vote by a solitary vote, he kept Ms. Sonia Gandhi away from the throne by invoking her foreign origin.
Madhavrao Scindia (left) and Mulayam Singh after Deve Gowda was elected Leader of the National front-Left front combine in 2001. Mr. Yadav served as the Defence Minister in the United Front governments led by H.D. Deve Gowda and later, I.K. Gujral.
Mualayam Singh Yadav and his party candidate Poolan Devi climb down from a stage after addressing a public meeting in Bhadohi on February 19, 1998. One of his masterstrokes was withdrawing cases against dacoit Phoolan Devi in 1995 and introducing her as a mascot of Nishads by giving her a Lok Sabha ticket.
Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao holds talks with the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav, in New Delhi on December 10, 1993. Mr. Yadav was the Chief Minister during Ramjanmabhoomi movement spearheaded by the Vishva Hindu Parishad. The VHP had promised to hold its ceremony in the land next to the Babri Masjid, but as feared, kar sevaks scaled the masjid in an attempt to tear it down. Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered his police to fire and several kar sevaks died, but the masjid remained standing.
