Mulayam Singh Yadav, founder of Samajwadi Party, passed away on Monday, 10 October, at a Gurugram hospital after prolonged illness. News18
New Delhi: Mulayam Singh Yadav, founder of Samajwadi Party, passed away on Monday, 10 October, at a Gurugram hospital after prolonged illness. Often called as ‘Dhartiputra’, the veteran leader remained a true son of the soil. He was hospitalised since August.
Born on 22 November, 1939, into a farming family in Uttar Pradesh’s Saifai near Etwah, Yadav contested his maiden Assembly election from Karhal in 1967 on Ram Manohar Lohia’s Samyukta Socialist Party ticket.
In 1977, he became a state minister for the first time and in 1980, Yadav was elected as the president of the Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh which later became a part of the Janata Dal.
Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1989 and 1992, he founded his own party – Samajwadi Party.
Yadav was elected an MLA 10 times and an MP, primarily from Mainpuri and Azamgarh, seven times.
Also, he was the Defence Minister from 1996 to 1998, and chief minister thrice (1989-1991, 1993-1995, and 2003-2007).
Why was Mulayam Singh Yadav called ‘Dhartiputra’?
Mulayam Singh Yadav won the mid-term elections that were held in 1968, 1974 and 1977 from the Jaswantnagar seat that he got from his mentor. He has always raised his voice for the welfare and interests of the working class. It is for this reason, he got the title of ‘Dhartiputra’ or the son of soil and since then he was called by this name.
His socialist’s ideology and ability to sense the pulse of people helped him win the post of chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Yadav used to consider Nathu Singh, an MLA from Jaswant Nagar, as his political guru. The two met during a wrestling match in Jaswant Nagar. During the match, MLA Nathu Singh saw Yadav, hit a wrestler in a jiffy. He got convinced by young Yadav and made him his disciple.
For the unversed, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s father always wanted his son to be a wrestler.
In 1967, Singh gave Yadav his Jaswant Nagar seat. The SP veteran was mere 28-year-old. Yadav contested the election and won the seat. Singh also introduced Yadav to Dr Rammanohar Lohia.
In 1967, when the untouchability and caste system was very much prevalent, Yadav raised his voice against the practices.
Mulayam Singh Yadav – a political science teacher who got into politics
Mulayam Singh Yadav initially wanted to be a professional wrestler. His love for studies, however, made him focus in academics and pursue a master’s in political science from BR Ambedkar University, Agra.
After completion of the course, Yadav took up a job as a teacher at a government college.
He worked as a teacher for few years at the Jain Inter College in Karhal area of Mainpuri after which he entered into politics.
Though he contested from the Jaswant Nagar assembly constituency on a Samyukta Socialist Party ticket in 1967 and won, his litmus taste in politics was in 1975 when a national emergency was declared by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
During the time, Mulayam was a second-term MLA. He was arrested and put behind bars for 19 months till the Emergency was lifted.
Jail term made young Yadav stronger and aided him firm his association with the leading lights of socialist and non-Congress movements of the age, including the stalwart of farmers’ movement and future prime minister Chaudhry Charan Singh.
Charan Singh then got Yadav to the Bhartiya Lok Dal and made him the party’s state president. In 1977, post-emergency, Yadav again won the Jaswant Nagar seat and was brought in as the cooperatives minister in the ’77 Janta party government in the state.
With inputs from agencies
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