Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav passes away at 82

New Delhi, October 10, 2022

Samajwadi Party patriarch and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away at a hospital in Gurugram near here this morning after a prolonged illness.

He was 82.

"My respected father and everybody's Netaji is no more," his son and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Twitter.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was ailing for some time, was admitted for treatment to the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram near here on August 22. He had been on life support system for the past one week.

Hospital sources said Mulayam Singh breathed his last at 8.15 am today.

On Sunday, Medanta Hospital had put out a health bulletin stating that the veteran leader's condition was quite critical and that he was on life-saving drugs.

Mulayam Singh, known popularly as "Netaji", was a member of the Lok Sabha from Mainpuri constituency in Uttar Pradesh. In all, he was elected five times to the Lower House of Parliament -- thrice from Mainpuri and once each from Azamgarh and Sambhal -- between 1996 and now.

Apart from serving as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice (from December 5, 1989 to June 24, 1991; ; from December 5, 1993 to June 3, 1995; and from August 29, 2003 to May 13, 2007), he also served as India's Defence Minister in the United Front Government, under then Prime Ministers H D Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral.

Born on November 22, 1939 in Saifai village of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav had a B. A. in Political Science from the Karm Kshetra Post-Graduate College in Etawah and an M. A. from B. R. College, Agra University.

Mulayam Singh Yadav's first wife, Malti Devi, the mother of Akhilesh Yadav, passed away in May 2003. His second wife Sadhana died in July this year.

Strongly influenced by Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, Mulayam Singh was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1967 and served eight terms in all. He was among the leaders who were arrested during the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government in 1975. He became a Minister in Uttar Pradesh in 1977.

At various times, he was part of the Lok Dal, launched his own Krantikari Morcha Party, joined the Janata Dal (Socialist) of Chandra Shekhar before finally launching his own Samajwadi Party in 1992.

NNN