Mulayam Singh Yadav death: From a small village in Uttar Pradesh to the Parliament, his journey has been inspirational. Mulayam Singh Yadav was born on November 22, 1939, in Saigal, Etawah district, Uttar Pradesh. He was the founder of the Samajwadi party and served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, three times.

Yadav, one of six children in the family, was raised in a poor farming family. He initially wanted to become a wrestler but he opted for higher studies. He got his Master’s degree in Political Science from Agra University, Agra.

He became involved in politics at the age of 15 when he encountered the writing of the Indian socialist Dr Ram Manohar Lohia whom he met in 1966, on the latter’s visit to Etawah. He went on to become the youngest MLA by defeating one of the persuasive leaders of Congress.

Yadav formed his own party in 1992 which pledged to create a socialist society. His party was incomplete without his own family’s involvement in party politics. Akhilesh Yadav, son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, became a major functionary of the party and also became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The second son of Mulayam Singh Yadav; Pratik Yadav, has always stayed away from politics and has kept himself involved in businesses ranging from fitness centers to real estate. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife and mother of Pratik Yadav came into the picture in 2003 when Mulayam Singh mentioned her as his wife and Prateek as his son. Though she held no official position in the party, she was known to be a backroom player in the Samajwadi Party politics.

Elder daughter-in-law and wife of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav is a former Member of Parliament from Kannauj. She lost her first Lok Sabha poll in 2009 from Firozabad but then won from Kannauj in 2012 and again in 2014.

Prateek Yadav’s wife  Aparna was the young aspiring politician in the family was always considered close to Mulayam Singh Yadav. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2022, championed by her mother-in-law.

Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger brother Shiv Pal Singh Yadav, favourite of most people in the party, is a four-time MLA and the grassroots leader who has a finger on the pulse of the political landscape of UP.

Malayan has two more brothers. Ratan Singh Yadav was an ex-serviceman who fought in the 1965 war. His grandson Tej Pratap Singh is also a politician. He has a farmer brother too; Abhey Ram, although he is not a part of the political Parivar, his son Dharmendra Yadav, is a two-time MP.

Another brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav – Rajpal Singh Yadav was a government employee. His wife and son were Panchayat-level leaders. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav is an SP leader and was the party’s general secretary when Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected as the Chief Minister in 1989. He became the party’s backbone and supported Akhilesh Yadav in the 2012 UP elections. His son Akshay Pratap Yadav is a former MP from Firozabad.

Akhilesh Yadav is now the new face of the Samajwadi party. Mulayam Singh Yadav has groomed Akhilesh Yadav as the youth leader of the party who can fulfill his dream to reach Delhi politics. It took huge patience on Mulayam Singh’s part to prevail upon the seniors, especially Shiv Pal Singh Yadav and Azam Khan to accept the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav.

At the age of 38, Akhilesh Yadav became the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Soon after Akhilesh undertook a major shake-up in the bureaucracy, he revived the practice of Janata darshan to listen to the problems of the people in the state.

Despite all this, there was a significant concern for law and order in the state, which proved a major reason for the defeat of Akhilesh Yadav in the subsequent poll. His inability to stamp his authority in the party, dominated by his father and uncle, was also a significant factor in the party’s debacle in 2017. However, his party improved significantly in the 2022 assembly poll against the mighty BJP in Uttar Pradesh. It is now his responsibility to take forward the great legacy of his father, who remained ever committed to the cause of social justice, equality, fraternity, and liberty!