Socialist stalwart and former multi-term UP CM, Mulayam Singh Yadav is no more
Samajwadi party chief and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav died earlier today after a long illness. He had been admitted to Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.
The body has been kept at Saifai Mela Festival for darshan. The cremation will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Mulayam was born to a farming family in Saifai village of Etawah district in 1939. He was a wrestler-turned-student leader whose journey as a politician was closely woven with the Mandal-Kamandal politics of the 1980s and 1990s.
That period of intense social and political ferment saw OBCs gain political ascendancy in Uttar Pradesh, leading to the sidelining of the Congress dominated by upper-caste leaders.
A follower of Ram Manohar Lohia and steeped in socialist tradition, Mulayam established himself as an OBC stalwart.
He took oath as the state’s 15th CM in 1989. He served for three non-consecutive terms as the chief minister. However, he never completed a full five-year term, his greatest nemesis being the Dalit leader Mayawati. He also served as the Union Minister of Defence from June 1996 to March 1998, in the coalition governments of prime ministers HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.
