By Rahul Shrivastava: Writing about the political contribution of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who passed away on October 10, Monday, is as complex as the politics he practiced.
Technically, it can be encapsulated in the following three to four paragraphs.
Post 2014 victory, the BJP could issue a clarion call for a Congress Mukt Bharat as the grand old party had slid to a 44 seats low in Lok sabha. Before and after that, the rise of regional satraps in states like West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was hastening the congress slide.
But Congress for its depleted state and the new political order for its gains owe a lot to the rise of wrestler turned socialist politician Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.
In 1989, he didnt just win an election or Congress didnt just lose one. The game was tougher then. The undivided UP was 425 assembly seats strong against todays 403.
That year, Congress was served a long-term eviction notice by the voters in Indias electorally most crucial state-Uttar Pradesh. Mulayam in the next few years robbed the party of its loyal vote bank. The political landscape altering turning point in history cleared the turf for new political owners to rush in.
The short in height and high on a political drive ,hard work and cunning Mulayam Singh contributed to the significant historical process of mainstreaming the regional parties in north Indian politics.
Signing off here on Mulayam Singh Gatha ( tale) would be extremely unfair to Mulayam Singh or the impact he had on politics.Some claim that there were many Mulayams rolled in one. For Backwards, especially Yadavs, he was dhartiputra ( son of the soul).
In school, to save a Dalit boy, Mulayam had thrashed a group of upper-caste boys all alone. His mates and juniors till date call him dada bhaiya
In 1991, as BJP-led Kar sevaks threatened to march towards the disputed Babri mosque in Ayodhya, in a Time Magazine interview he said the mosque will be attacked, over my dead body. He ordered firing on Kar sevaks and earned the sobriquet mullah Mulayam.
For his party men and even family members, he was Netaji. Some bureaucrats hounded by him for not doing his bidding used to call him nano napoleon.
Some of his critics would like to read out the list of betrayals he committed. His friends have a long list of betrayals Mulayam was meted out in his life and career. Some prefer to brand him as yet another opportunistic regional satrap bending the rules or making suitable ones in his quest for power.
I feel he was a politician who took body blows as well as delivered blows on his rivals, in Indias most complex and unsparing electoral cauldron called UP. Mulayam Yadav entered the batting crease where the odds at one time were loaded against those who didnt have an upper caste surname. UP politics was the playground for the upper caste boys. Today Yogi may be CM, but the OBCs and the MBCs are the game changers. And these caste groups owe their self today to leaders like Mulayam m, who altered the politics of India through Uttar Pradesh.
Every journalist has a few events, players and themes which begin at the start of their career and stay till the end.The Ramjanmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya and Mulayam Singh Yadav are my long-term travel mates.
I met both in 1989. Mandir and Mulayam had exploded as extraordinary political course amending templates. The Temple may be ready by early 2024. Mulayams life journey has ended.
I was lucky. The first time we met, Mulayam was scheduled to be part of an anti-bofors March in Etah and his old spluttering ambassador wasnt starting. I offered a lift and he was good at grabbing opportunities.
During the journey he told me about his struggle. How he belonged to a poor peasant family with a few cattle and a kuccha home . His village, Sefai, had just one well as source of water, no school or paved road. He wanted to study and his father wanted him to be a wrestler. The village Pradhan Mahendra Singh was his first teacher who used to hold night classes for Mulayam and his friends.
Almost 33 years ago in that car journey he told me about how he had to cross a rainwater nullah during the monsoon outside his village to reach the main road on the way to college. He would strip down to his inner wear , wrap his clothes in a piece of polythene, take a bath at a hand pump and then dress up. He showed me a banyan tree claiming he used to climb up the tree with his bicycle on his shoulder and lock it with a chain for safety. He had chuckled and said, I was fit. In Karhal, I defeated a state level wrestler. The bicycle was safe up on the tree as not many could climb up and bring it down.
Back at his home eating a simple meal of rotis, dal, saag and large red stuffed -with- masala mirchis, he forgot we had met barely a few hours ago. He told us, I got a job as a teacher at the college I used to study at. The owner, Lallaji used to spend a couple of hours every morning praying. One day, I and a colleague were at his home when the phonestarted ringing. Lallaji asked me to answer. I had never seen or handled a phone. Petrified, I picked up the phone and didnt say anything. The caller kept shouting hello-hello. But I thought he was saying hillo-hillo ( move-move). Angry, I shot back tum Hilo hum kyon hilein ( you move why should I move) and banged the phone down. Later, Lallaji scolded me but also taught me how to use a phone.
After our first meeting was about to end, he walked to our car to see us off. Since then, every time I went to meet him in the next three decades, I found that he extended the same courtesy to every visitor. A warm personal send off was his trade mark. So was his style of crisis management. I recall in 2000 there was some communal friction in Azamgarh and Mulayam Singh wanted to know exactly what was happening. He called his staff members to connect him to the SHO Mubarakpur and the Samajwadi party zilla pramukh. What surprised me was that he did not reel out the designations but gave specific names. I asked how he remembered the names. He replied, I had appointed them.
WRESTLING PIT TO POLITICAL TURF
It was his wrestling and daanv ( tackle) that became his ticket to politics. Nathu Singh, an influential leader of the Praja Socialist Party contesting the assembly poll in 1962 witnessed Mulayam at a wrestling bout in Nagla Amber and became his political guru.
It was Nathu Singh who organised Mulayam Singhs meeting with socialist Ram Manohar Lohia of the Samyukt Socialist Party. On 15 August 1966, Lohia called for a UP bandh. Mulayam Singh, at his mentor Nathu Singhs command, worked hard. Later, when Lohia came to Etawah for a public rally, Mulayam managed to meet Lohia.
Mulayam again grabbed the chance. From that day, Mulayam was a Lohiaite and his ideology was socialism. In 1967, his candidature was proposed from Jaswant Nagar seat. His challenger was congressman and advocate Lakhan Singh, who invoked Nehru, Shastri and the Congress role in the freedom struggle. Mulayam chose door to door and personalised a campaign. He emerged as a giant killer by securing 1.03 lakh votes. Personalised, uncomplicated campaigning exhorting the marginalised to unite became his trademark style.
By the 1970s, Mulayams political idol was Ch Charan Singh and his party, Lok Dal. After the tumultuous emergency, non-congress political players united and parted.
In 1986, Charan Singh fell ill and Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna took over the party. A faction of Lok dal convinced Charan Singhs son Ajit Singh to enter politics and join as party general secretary.
Threatened Mulayam Singh once again grabbed the opportunity. He sided with Bahuguna. Provoked, the Ajit Singh faction removed him from the leader of opposition post in the UP assembly. On 26 May, 1987, Charan Singhs death led to a split in Lok dal into Lok Dal (Ajit) and Lok dal (Bahuguna).
Mulayam Singh once again timed his move perfectly. He dumped his mentor Charan Singhs son and chose to be the head of Lok dal Bahuguna in UP.
Soon Hemwati Bahuguna and Devilal, the Haryana strongman in Lok Dal, were at loggerheads. Devilal called for a conclave and Mulayam Singh, this time, ignored his mentor Bahuguna and attended the conclave.
He had changed mentor yet again. By 1989 the Janata dal had emerged as a united force of opposition parties and Mulayam was its UP chief, ready for the next big opportunity.
Meanwhile, the Congress led by PM Rajiv Gandhi offered twin chances to Mulayam. He sided with Muslim clergy up in arms against the Supreme Court order on shah Bano case and opposed the permission given to BJPs affiliate VHP to perform shilanyas ( foundation laying ) close to the disputed Babri mosque on 9 November 1989. If the minority voters were wary of the Congress, Mulayam had entered the frame to prove his pro-Muslim credentials.
On 22 November 1989, the assembly results catapulted Mulayam as the face of janata dal. The congress under Narain dutt tiwari lost 175 seats compared to last poll. And the bjp under Kalyan Singh gained 41 seats. Mulayam was chief minister.
December 1989 was a month of epic events that heralded the decline of the upper castes domination and the rise of the mandalites. Mulayam Singh took oath as UP chief minister on 5 December at a public rally like event at Lucknows K D Singh Babu Stadium.
Then Mulayam Singh trained his focus on securing the 20% Muslim core in UP. Then 1990 changed Indian politics, Mulayam singh and the bjp permanently. In Delhi, threatened by an aggressive BJP and the challenges created by allies, PM V P Singh in his 1990 independence day speech announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission report recommending 27% reservation in Govt jobs and educational institutions for OBC.
Mandalites celebrated the launch. The upper castes who dominated government jobs, especially the upper grades, felt threatened and erupted.
The bjp capitalised on that. As anti-mandal protests continued unabated, the saffron party crafted a parallel launch of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. Emerging hindutva poster boy L K Advani, backed by the RSS and aided by bjp strategist Pramod Mahajan, started the Ram Janambhoomi rath Yatra from Somnath. The yatra took off on Sept 25, 1990.
Soon, Mandal was set to clash with Kamandal.
For Mulayam, the opportunity came when the belligerent bjp riding on the 9 November 1989 shilanyas decided that staying a member of the V P Singh Govt was proving counter productive.
It pushed for more. On October 21, a large number of kar sevaks or temple volunteers responding to appeals by Advani and VHPs Ashok Singhal started gathering at Ayodhya. Mulayam Singh, as CM, ordered a cordon to block access. Kar sevaks swam across the Saryu river. A kar sevak hijacked the bus taking his detained colleagues and drove the bus through the barricades around the Babri Mosque. Some frenzied kar sevaks managed to climb on top of the mosque and hoisted a saffron flag.
Mulayam Singh pressed the button in lucknow and police opened fire on the kar sevaks. On 1 November, the kar sevaks cremated those who died on 30 October. They reassembled on 2 November. For the second time in two days, the CM ordered a crackdown. Many more kar sevaks were killed.
Bjp withdrew support to V P Singh, Govt. Mulayam changed gears and, with the support of Chandrashekhars janata dal (socialist) and the congress, with attempt to keep bjp out acting as glue continued in the CMs office.
But Congress cut its support to Chandrashekhar in Delhi over a controversy in April 1991. Mulayam, too, lost his chair. He always held a grudge against the congress for bringing down a government on flimsy grounds.
Soon the art of political survival drove him towards the BSP led by Kanshi Ram, which was making deep inroads in the Dalit vote bank. The duo - Kanshi Ram and Mulayam met in April 1991, before the elections for the first time. The meeting, I still recall, was brokered by the influential godman Chandraswami. Kanshi Ram had then said a firm 'no' to an alliance claiming the Janata Party parivar was dominated and dictated by upper caste leaders.
In the 1991 assembly polls, Mulayam fought alone and lost. The BJP, thanks to the Ram temple agitation, came to power in UP for the first time.But In 1992 the BJPs Kalyan Singh Govt was sacked as it abetted the demolition of Babri mosque on December 6. Yet another mid-term election loomed. The SP was born on October 4, 1992 less than 65 days before the Babri mosque was brought down.
On April 19, 2019, at Mainpuri, a large crowd cheered the arrival of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati on stage for the first SP-BSP gathabandhan rally in decades. Akhilesh had taken a leaf from father Mulayam Yadavs thick book of tricks as Mualayam-Kanshi Ram had done the same in 1991. Almost 31 years ago, I was in the same town Mainpuri to attend a BSP public meeting for the Etawah seat by-poll.The candidate was Kanshi Ram. From the stage, an associate of Kanshi Ram journalist-turned-politician Khadim Abbas belted out a slogan Mile Mulayam Kanshiram, hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shree Ram (if Mulayam and Kanshi come together, BJPs Ram Mandir plank would be blown away in the air).
Eventually, Kanshi Ram won, defeating Lal Singh Verma of the BJP. It was the first BJP defeat after the triumph of 221 of the 425 seats in the UP Assembly in 1991. The slogan was a virtual prophecy.Mulayam had started scripting the politics of tomorrow.
Ahead of the 1993 Assembly polls, to take on the BJP, which had blurred caste lines and united voters in Hindutva, Mulayam played yet another political tackle which he had been practising since 1991.
He turned to Kanshi Ram.The BJP in 1991 had won 221 of the 425 seats with 31.45% votes. But the BSP had won 12 of the 386 with 10.26% votes.
Before the Assembly polls, at one of the government Guest Houses in Lucknow, a historic meeting took place between Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Yadavs confidante and cousin Ram Gopal Yadav. Later, Ram Gopal Yadav told me, Kanshi Ram is a pragmatic, wise man. He didnt haggle for seats. He simply asked for the 12 BSP had won last time and 144 which we have no chance of winning. So we will contest on 267 seats and BSP 156.
In the Assembly poll, in a unique experiment in social engineering orchestrated by Mulayam, the Yadavs, Muslims and SCs voted along caste and community lines in a symbolic mandate against the BJPs upper caste-Hindu party positioning. The BJPs tally was restricted to 177. BSP won 67 and SP 109. Mandal had joined hands with Bahujan to keep Kamandal out of power. Mulayam was chief minister again
Interestingly, one of his first acts after taking over as the chief minister was to abolish the Anti-Copying Act introduced by the previous BJP government. The measure was meant to be a sop to the student community and cheating on a prodigious scale was expected. That defined another trait of Mulayams politics - so whats popular among the subalterns and socially backwards. This was in sync with his attacks against the use of the English language. And between 2012-15, the state govt headed by Mulayams son distributed a total of 15 lakh laptops to students, making it one of the largest distribution schemes ever imitated by any government in the world.
But back then, in 1993, the SP-BSP was always a restless alliance, a coming together of two different social awakenings, at times conflicting, both led by leaders who were terribly ambitious, new to power, suspicious of each other and less bound by political etiquette of the past. Kanshi Ram was interested in expanding his party base while the BSP shared power with the SP. His protg, school-teacher-turned politician, firebrand Dalit activist Mayawati, was impatient. The BSP didnt let Mulayam Yadav spend a single day without signalling that he was chief minister surviving on the support of BSP MLAs. The BSP could never stop looking over its shoulder, fearing that wily Mulayam may engineer defections of its MLAs by offering ministerial berths and other inducements.
Mulayam was facing a betrayal, so he started working on Plan B. By May 1995, the SP and BSP were like a married couple living together with bitterness, preparing for an acrimonious divorce.
The wrestler pushed against the mat and soon used the state machinery and muscle to win 31 out of 56 zilla panchayat chairmanships the BSP was completely edged out.
In May 1995's by-election, Mulayam proved his mettle by winning three of the four seats, despite the BSP virtually sabotaging its alliance partner. Thats when the BJP started sending feelers to Kanshi Ram.
THE START OF 25 YEAR DIVORCE
On June 1, 1995, Kanshi Ram was admitted to a Delhi hospital recovering from brain clot removal treatment. Mayawati had visited her political mentor who, according to those who were at the hospital, asked her, How would you like to be the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh?Kanshi Ram is said to have struck a deal with the BJP and the saffron party was ready to back her after BSP breaks the alliance with the SP.
In Lucknow, on the same day, Mulayam was in his office when one of his favourite bureaucrats, PL Punia, now a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, walked in without knocking on the door. Punia is said to have whispered something in Mulayams ear and slipped a note in his hand. Mulayam, according to two leaders who were present, was visibly rattled. Mulayam turned to the SP leaders and said, Chunav ki tayyari karo (prepare for polls). Mulayam left for his home where he summoned all the top leaders. It is said that the plan to bring out the BSP fence-sitter MLAs and keep them ready for a parade before the state governor was made during the meeting.
Meanwhile, Mayawati was back in Lucknow and on June 2 the coup against Mulayam was ready to unfold. Mayawati was at Lucknows Meera Bai guest house, barely 2 kms from the state Assembly with BSP MLAs finalising the strategy. After one round of meeting, she went inside suite No 1 of the guest house apparently to hold some secret parleys with trusted BSP men. Suddenly, a huge commotion was heard outside.Some leaders who were sitting in the common room of the guest house rushed out to check. They returned scared, shouting SP gundon ne hamla kar diya hai (SP goons are attacking). BSP men shut the main gate of the guest house but it was broken down. Within seconds, nearly 300 men armed with lathis and guns (as claimed by BSP leaders) entered the guest house. BSP MLAs were beaten, physically lifted and dumped in jeeps waiting outside. The vehicles drove off with nearly five BSP MLAs.
Inside, Mayawati was allegedly roughed up by the goons. Some trusted men managed to lock the door of the suite. Inside, a terrified Mayawati is said to have made desperate calls to BJP leaders and Union home minister SB Chavan. Then-UP governor Motilal Vora, sent a law and order breakdown report to the PV Narasimha Rao government, which accepted the recommendation for the imposition of the Presidents rule. Mulayam's government was sacked on June 3.
In 1999 during a conversation, Mulayam had told me, The congress at the Centre didnt give the Govt a chance to explain. Thats how Congress at the centre used to treat states.
In Delhi, the BJP moved fast. Top leaders Atal Bihar Vajpayee, LK Advani and others took a prompt decision that the time had come. With a large posse of policemen ensuring security, Mayawati stepped out and was taken to Raj Bhawan to stake claim to form a government backed by the BJP and Janata Dal. Within 24 hours of the attack by SP goons, Mayawati was sworn in as the first Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam, unknowingly, through his actions, had brought the BJP and BSP together, helped Mayawati become CM and BSP had become a force to reckon with.
While Mayawati and the BJP broke up and came together again, Mulayam stayed out of power waiting.
In 1996, Mulayam came touching distance of becoming prime minister. He had won 17 Lok sabha seats. The BJP, with 161 MPs, didnt have the numbers and failed the floor test. As the third front started taking off, Mulayams candidature for the top job was shot down, one by Lalu Yadav of the rjd and the second by VP Singh. In the 80s, Mulayam, as an opposition leader, challenged the anti-dacoity ops launched by the. UP CM VP Singh.
In 1989, Singh, looking for revenge, wanted Ajit Singh to be UP CM while MLAs were backing Mulayam. Singh had sent a message to Mlas with socialist leader Surendra Mohan. But Mulayam blocked the attempt . In 1996 the wrestler had to face a tackle from VP Singh, who vetoed him for the PMs post. Mulayam had to accept the defence minister's job.
But the national front government was short lived as both H D Deve gowda and I k Gujarat govts were brought down on flimsy grounds by the congress lending outside support.
Mulayam waited as the bjp or the BSP-bjp combine kept him out of power. He had his chance in 2003 when he split Mayawati's party to be CM for the third time. Very few know that in CM Mayawati's office in 2003, there apparently existed a file with a proposal to slap POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) against Mulayam Singh, the leader of the opposition and his then-confidant Amar Singh.
FOR AMAR SINGH - MULAYAM DILUTED SAMAJWAD
Mulayam Singh decided to appoint Amar Singh as general secretary of his party during a flight . That metamorphosed Mulayams Samajwad. The Amar Singh factor almost took socialism out of the partys lexicon as Mulayam was regularly seen in the company of Bollywood biggies and corporate captains. Sometime in 2004, I noticed Mulayam wearing a nice, expensive-looking wrist watch. It was a Rado gifted by Singh. His favourite in 1989 was a made in India, humble HMT.
In 1999 Mulayam was out with another daanv or tackle altering the course of politics and history. In April that year, Sonia Gandhi met the President of India and staked claim to form a Govt as PM with the backing of 272 MPs, including Mulayam Singhs 32.
But then Mulayam performed his typical U-turn. Refused to support Sonia Gandhi's PM bid. During a conversation, a few days later, Mulayam Singh had said the Congress return to power in Delhi would have helped it regain ground in UP as the BJP was on the slide.
When the next Lok Sabha elections were held in 2004 Mulayam Singh was ruling UP. And Vajpayee government's India's shining campaign was floundering across India. Significantly, his party won 36 seats. In 2008, when the left parties withdrew support to the Manmohan Singh govt over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal in July, Mulayam again grabbed the opportunity.
He had initially opposed the nuke deal as among his Muslim vote base there was a strong perception against the US. But guided by confidante, Amar Singh reached out to the Congress and promised to get them the required numbers in the Trust Vote in Lok Sabha.He went against his old ally- the left front.
Amar Singh took Mulayam Singh to the Imam of Delhis Jama Masjid and missile man A P J Abdul Kalam to get an endorsement. SP backing saved the govt
But Mulayams change of heart in supporting the congress had personal reasons as the CBI had registered a disproportionate assets case against him on Supreme Court order on 1 March, 2007. The allegation was made in a PIL filed by an advocate, Vishwanath Chaturvedi.
Interestingly, at the time when Mulayam was warming up to saving the Manmohan Singh govt, in July 2008 his daughter-in law Dimple Yadav, wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denying the allegations against her in the DA case. In November, 2008, the then Solicitor General GE Vahanvati opined that the assets of Dimple and Malti Devi, Mulayams late first wife, could not be clubbed with those of Mulayam, because they "held no public office"
Since then, the govt kept the Samajwadi Partys first family on a tight leash by using the CBI which changed its stand and sworn affidavits in court many times.
The Congress ruling the centre could manipulate Mulayam and his party with ease because he had lost control of UP in 2007. In that assembly election, his campaign was "high-profile with a series of eye-catching advertisements in the print and electronic media with film star Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign was a departure from the S.P.'s traditional campaign style, which centred round the public meetings of Mulayam Singh Yadav and very personalised outreach for votes.
Worse, Mayawati, who was helped to the top at one time by Mulayam, had taken a leaf out of his book of politics. To win the votes of the most dominant backward castes like mallahs, Nishads and others in eastern UP, he had sent signals like importing ex-bandit queen Phoolan Devi to Mirzapur from her native Jalaun. That was his art of social engineering . Mayawati was plotting her own. The upper caste, especially Brahmins, were unhappy with the bjp due to its slow distancing from the Ram temple issue during Vajpayees prime ministerial tenure. Her social rainbow coalition worked. In 2007, Mayawati won. Mulayam suffered a major setback.
Desperate to recover ground in the 2009 Lok sabha polls on Amar Singhs advice, he tied up with Kalyan Singh, ousted from the bjp. That decision hurt Mulayams image among the Muslim voters. His partys tally in the lower house fell to 23.
But when things seemed to be going south for the SP, Mayawati decided to lose credibility by focussing more on building monuments and erecting statues. Mulayam, in the meanwhile, had inducted his engineer son Akhilesh into politics.
A dynastic sonrise was on under the party CEO Mulayam and MD uncles - shivpal and Ram gopal Yadav. By 2011, Akhilesh unleashed a potent campaign against Mayawati. He cycled thousands of kms across UP to drive the promise of a new gen of Samajwad. His manifesto included bijli pani , jobs and free laptops. He found resonance among the youth as he, with a gentle tap on his IPad, drove his party to another level. He would send messages from his blackberry while driving a BMW bicycle.
The Samajwadi party won a clear majority in 2012. Mulayam, three days before the last phase of polls, had told me, I sometimes scold him as father. But advise him as a leader. If the public votes for him, he can be chief minister.
Akhilesh was sworn in but then started perhaps the most surprising U-turn of Mulayams career. He made his son CM but kept the remote control to the Govt with him. He would alter the CMs decisions and official appointments, criticise the government publicly and back his sons detractors.
The opposition would gleefully throw barbs that the government had four and a half chief ministers Mulayam Singh , Ram Gopal Yadav, Shivpal Singh and Azam Khan, and the half being Akhilesh himself.
Then there were too many power centres- Mulayams second wife, Sadhana Gupta, his son by her, Prateek Yadav, daughter in law Aparna Yadav, nephews Dharmendra Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Aditya Yadav apart from daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav (MP from Kannauj).
He had created the empire and the inheritors were pulling the party in different directions.
Meanwhile, in 2012, he added to the list of betrayals enforced. Mulayam Singh Yadav teamed up with Mamata Banerjee to float the names of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former President APJ Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee as candidates for the Presidential poll. He dumped Banerjee and batted for Pranab Mukherjee. The Congress, which didnt want to let Mukherjee go, couldnt say no. Yet another of Mulayams u-turns had scripted political history.
The party lost huge tracts of land in the 2014 LS polls. The bjp led by the modi-shah duo encashed on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, decimated every player in UP. His party won only 5 of the 80 LS seats.
A rebellion by his father hit Akhilesh Yadav. Soon the family feud was unfolding in the public domain. Akhilesh, in a decisive move to end his uncle Shivpals attempts to gain control of the party, virtually cut his father's umbilical to the outfit. Mulayam lost his MPs, MLAs, party and even the symbol cycle to his son.
Some said Mulayam engineered the whole thing. But I know thats not true. Mulayam was split between the son from his first wife, the pressures from his second wife, his brothers and his own refusal to let go.
By February 2017, Mulayam was found missing from the campaign, the posters and hoardings and slogans of the party he had created and curated.
Eventually, a family war he had abetted and the political culture he had part promoted or part overlooked ( like saying - boys make mistakes- when asked about cases of crimes against women) proved critical. Akhilesh yadav was voted out by a new look bjp led by the modi-shah duo.
While Akhilesh struggled to find his feet, Mulayam Singh, battling poor health and isolation in his own party, slowly started fading.
In 2019 his son tried to wash away the bitterness between SP and BSP by tying up with Mayawati for the Lok sabha polls.
At the Mainpuri joint SP-BSP rally, I saw Mulayam the past weighed heavy on his almost octogenarian shoulders. Standing on the stage with akhilesh and Mayawati - cheered by red and green sp and blue BSP flags, he was visibly not so surefooted as he used to be. Mulayam, this time, was made part of history which he had not scripted.
The gathabandhan lost the election as the arithmetic was working for it but not the electoral chemistry of the cadres and the voters.
In his hay days, Mulayam yadav had constructed social alliances beyond the Yadavs and Muslims. But after years in power, the perception on the ground about his party was that the benefits of Mulayam or Akhilesh's rule would not extend beyond the Yadavs, especially his own community of Kamariya Yadavs. In UPs caste cauldron, this perception had driven the yadavs like the Ghausi yadavs, non-yadav obcs like the Kurmis and the MBCs towards the BJP.
Early this year, on February 18, I saw him at a public meeting in Karhal ahead of the UP assembly polls. Later in the evening, he invited me on board Akhilesh Yadavs campaign rath that was going to pass through the family pocket borough of Etawah.
I remembered all the occasions in the past when I had traveled with Mulayam and how he could make the waiting crowds boil with frenzy.
I also recalled that in 2019 I was in the rath he was taking from Etawah from Mainpuri to file us nomination. During the ride back home, he called one of the very talented photographers who travelled with Akhilesh Yadav during campaign time. His health had been a cause for concern. He was tired. Still with a glint in his eyes, he told Shantanu Biswas, we have been friends for 33 years. But there is no picture of us together.
That day, I felt that Mulayam had stopped circling around his rivals, with the occasional forward lunges of a wrestler. He wasnt throwing betrayals and had moved away from being betrayed.
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