Gurugram: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav, passed away at the age of 82 on Monday at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital.
Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav confirmed the demise of his father who was critical in the hospital for the past few days.
Born on November 22, 1939, Mulayam Singh Yadav is one of the most prominent leaders of Uttar Pradesh who served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice and has also served in the Union Government as the Minister of Defence.
He was elected 10 times as MLA and 7 times as Lok Sabha MP.
TIME WHEN MULAYAM SINGH YADAV ALMOST BECAME THE PRIME MINISTER
His was the story of a politician who almost became the Prime Minister of India.
In 1996, when the United Front was poised to form the government, Mulayam Singh’s name was floated to lead the alliance. It was opposed by leaders, including Lalu Prasad Yadav. He again saw an opportunity in 2014 but the election results dampened the possibility forever. People close to him said that the Samajwadi patriarch nursed a grievance that he could not become the Prime Minister of India despite being the chief minister of the most-populous state three times.
In 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government imposed the Emergency, Mulayam Singh was among the politicians who were arrested and imprisoned for 19 months. While he opposed Congress during the Emergency, he supported it in 2008 for the Indo-Us nuclear deal.
Often referred to as a politician whose ears were always close to the ground, Mulayam Singh’s career had been strewn with promises of building and breaking ties nonetheless.
He launched his career by openly siding with Chandra Shekhar against VP Singh. He then surprised everyone by forging an alliance with his party’s arch-rival BSP. But the path-breaking alliance soon broke up amid the “guesthouse incident”.
While Mulayam remained critical of the BJP’s Hindutva politics, he sided with the saffron party at times. For example, Mulayam Singh Yadav surprised everyone by supporting BJP in 2002 in its bid to make APJ Abdul Kalam the President of India.
Last year, a photo of Mulayam Singh Yadav with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at a function had created a flutter in political circles.
Mulayam Singh passed away at the age of 82 at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital today (October 10) due to age-related ailments.
He was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital last Sunday after his health deteriorated. His wife, Sadhana Gupta, passed away in July this year following a lung infection. Sadhana Gupta was Mulayam Singh Yadav’s second wife. His first wife Maalti Devi passed away in 2003. Maalti Devi was the mother of Akhilesh Yadav.