The somersault king

Barely a week after the Samajwadi Party (SP) turned 30, its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav has passed away, bringing to an end an eventful era in Uttar Pradesh as well as national politics. Trained as a wrestler, Mulayam was more skilful as an acrobat — flexible enough to change his stand with effortless ease. He had a lifelong knack for knowing which way the wind was blowing. No political party was anathema to him when it came to making or breaking deals, be it the Bahujan Samaj Party, the BJP or the Congress.

One of the tallest Opposition leaders, Mulayam formed the SP at a time when the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was nearing a crescendo. Two years earlier, the BJP had withdrawn support to his government over the contentious issue, but he managed to win over the Congress to stay afloat. His party reached out to the Muslim votebank amid the rapid rise of Hindutva politics in the Hindi belt. No wonder it was Mulayam who had proposed the name of renowned scientist APJ Abdul Kalam as the presidential nominee of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA in 2002.

From samajwad to parivarwad, the mercurial Mulayam ran the entire gamut of the political spectrum. Ironically, despite his all-out promotion of dynastic rule, he failed to keep his own flock together. The rift between his son Akhilesh and brother Shivpal not only weakened the SP but also loosened the patriarch’s hold. The three-time CM could have played a bigger role on the national stage, but the power struggle in his home state tied him down. It goes to his credit that the Sukhoi fighter jet deal with Russia was sealed during his tenure as the Defence Minister. True to form, the U-turn expert snubbed the Congress when Sonia Gandhi staked her claim to form the government after the Vajpayee sarkar fell in 1999. He shocked the entire Opposition by lavishing praise on PM Modi in Parliament ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and even wished a second term for the BJP spearhead. His death leaves the SP, which has lost two UP Assembly elections in succession, at the crossroads.

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