The soft and tough sides of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s politics

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the senior-most of the Yadav triumvirate—Sharad and Lalu-being the other two is the first among them to enter into history book on October 10, 2022.

A product of the street-fighting years of 1960s, he won the Assembly election for the first time from Karhal in Uttar Pradesh in 1967 on Ram Manohar Lohia’s Samyukta Socialist Party ticket. This was seven years before Sharad Yadav (another disciple of Lohia) won the Lok Sabha by-poll from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and 10 years before Lalu emerged victorious from Chapra in Bihar in 1977 Lok Sabha election on Janata Party ticket.

While Mulayam and Sharad were 27 when they became elected representatives, Lalu was 29. In the next over four decades the trio were to play a significant role in the backward politics of not only their states but of the entire north India.

However, there came a time when either of the three could have become the Prime Minister of India, but perhaps personality clash—apart from other factors—spoiled the prospect.

Mulaym, who became a minister in the UP cabinet in 1977 went on to become the chief minister of the state for the first of the three times in December 1989. As most of the newly-formed Janata Dal MLAs were with him, Ajit Singh, the son of former Prime Minister Charan Singh and the candidate of then PM V P Singh could not get this post.

When the then Janata Dal got split in November 1990 Mulayam decided to throw his lot behind Chandrashekhar, who became the Prime Minister with the backing of Congress. The Congress also supported Mulayam’s government in UP. But in April 1991 the Congress withdrew support necessitating general election as well as UP Assembly poll. The BJP exploited the division within the Janata Parivar and for the first time it formed government under Kalyan Singh.

In 1992 Mulayam parted ways from Chandrashekhar’s Samajwadi Janata Party and floated Samajwadi Party. After the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 the Centre dismissed the BJP government in UP, MP and Rajasthan.

In between Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Tamil militants on May 21, 1991—that is in the midst of the Lok Sabha poll. The Congress emerged as the largest party with Narasimha Rao becoming the Prime Minister.

Sharad and Lalu remained in the Janata Dal of V P Singh. On the other hand Mulayam joined hands with Kanshi Ram’s Bahujan Samaj Party. The two parties contested Assembly election jointly in November 1993 and came out victorious. Mulayam became the chief minister for the second time. But the alliance collapsed in December 1995 after the alleged assault on Mayawati by Samajwadi Party workers.

It was in May 1996 that Mulayam (and some versions say even Lalu) got a possible chance to become the PM. Though the BJP and allies got 161 seats in the Lok Sabha poll held then the government formed under

Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to prove majority on the floor of the House on May 28 after 13 days. The second biggest party, The Congress had 140 seats and was not in position to form the government. It was then that the United Front of various other parties was formed. The Janata Dal, then led by Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, had got 46 seats, a sizeable number of them from Bihar.

Besides, Sharad was also a key player as he had served both as the working president of the Janata Dal and its parliamentary party leader. In contrast Mulayam’s Samajwadi Party won only 17 seats. But he enjoyed the support of Left Front which too had 32 MPs.
Reports emanating from inside the meeting confirmed that both Lalu and Mulayam stalled each other’s name. It is after this that the parties agreed on the then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu. But his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) stonewalled the decision of the United Front.

It was only then that they agreed on the name of the then Karnataka chief minister H D Deve Gowda, who came from the Janata Dal.

Anyway, Mulayam went on to become the defence minister in Deve Gowda and subsequently I K Gujral’s ministers which got the outside backing of the Congress.

The problem with Mulayam was that unlike in Bihar, both the upper caste and Dalits have substantially strong presence in UP. The upper caste along with the trading communities and a section of non-Yadav backwards sided with the BJP while 21.3 per cent Dalits were solidly behind BSP.

Mulayam had cultivated good relationship with Muslims , especially after 1990 police firing on Kar Sevaks on October 30 and November 2. He was then the CM. It needs to be recalled that only on October 23 Lalu, as the CM of Bihar, had got BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani arrested in Samastipur and thus ended the Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra.
Muslims formed 19.3 per cent of UP’s population.

The BJP had in Kalyan Singh an influential backward caste leader. Mulayam could not become the chief minister again till 2003 when the BJP withdrew support from the Mayawati’s BSP, which came to power after the April 2002 Assembly poll.

The BJP got weakened in UP because of the infighting within which led to the dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government on November 12, 1999. Mark it, the BJP was in power in the Centre then. Kalyan floated his own party and in a way backed Mulayam.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha poll Samajwadi Party won 39 out of 80 seats in UP and like Lalu in Bihar, greatly helped the Congress to form government under Manmohan Singh.

But Mulayam lost the 2007 Assembly poll in UP because the Brahmins decided to change their loyalty from BJP to Mayawati’s party.

In the meantime Kalyan Singh, who had rejoined the BJP in 2004, once again deserted it. In the 2009 Lok Sabha poll Mulayam decided to join hands with Kalyan. He came under strong criticism as the latter was the chief minister when Babri Masjid was brought down.

This decision of Mulayam had a negative impact on his party which could win only 23 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll. The Congress surprisingly emerged as the second best with 21 seats and BSP 20. The BJP and its alliance partner the rashtriya Lok Dal could win only 10 and five seats respectively.

The Congress did well because the Muslims of UP were annoyed with Mulayam’s joining of hands with Kalyan and voted for the Congress. Later Mulayam apologized for this action and handed over the mantle to his son Akhliesh Singh Yadav, who led Samajwadi party to victory in 2012 Assembly poll.

Though Mulayam was known for his tough stand against the BJP, his decision to join forces with Kalyan Singh and his later action to facilitate the victory of saffron party in 2017 has come under heavy fire from many political observers.

In late 2016 he got embroiled in open clash with his CM son. This prolonged infighting badly divided the SP and the BJP fully exploited this decision and emerged as victorious. The man who throughout his life fought against the saffron party finally helped it consolidate its position as never before.

Sharad, on his part joined the NDA in 1999 and became Union minister in the Vajpayee cabinet. He remained on this post till 2004. Lalu is the only one in the Yadav triumviarte who never succumbed to the BJP’s carrot and stick policy though he had to suffer a lot.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM

The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed in the article are writer’s own.