Mulayam Singh Yadav, an astute politician and a political engineer

LUCKNOW: Mulayam Singh Yadav is not very tall, but the truth is that there are very few leaders who can stand above him in politics. Hardworking and strategic, Mulayam Singh had played a historic role in bringing regional parties to the mainstream. A political engineer indeed.

Mulayam was a person who always stood for what was right. His followers and opponents often address him as 'Netaji' and 'Dhartiputra'. He was a political leader of many characteristics. He worked day and night for the welfare of the backward people. He was always Dhartiputra (son of the soul) to the yadavs. Mulayam beat a group of upper caste people to save a Dalit boy in school. Since then he became Dada Bhaiya. It was Mulayam who brought the backward people into UP politics, which was always in the hands of the upper castes.

Mulayam is a person who fits the description of Chanakya in politics. He used to raise the one who has to be raised and eliminate one that has to be eradicated. He was against the congress party from the beginning but later when the situation came to unite with them, he did not hesitate at all. He was always against the BJP. Mulayam, who strongly opposed the construction of the Ram temple, openly said that Ayodhya cannot be made an agenda for Sangh Parivar politics. In 1991, when Karsevaks led by the BJP threatened to march to Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, in an interview to Time magazine, he said that they could attack the mosque only after stepping on his body. He was nicknamed 'Maulana Mulayam' because he stood with the Muslims. While opposing the BJP in this way, Mulayam had recognized that BJP was his future opponent in UP politics.

It was the influence of caste politics that enabled Mulayam to make a race in the Hindi heartland. Mulayam Singh Yadav's journey into national politics was quite an eventful one. His father sent Mulayam for training with the desire to make him a wrestler. However, Mulayam was keen in politics. He entered politics through a socialist leader named Nattu Singh whom he met while studying wrestling. His association with Ram Manohar Lohia made Mulayam one of the young faces of the socialist movement in Uttar Pradesh.

After the death of Lohia, Mulayam joined the Bharatiya Lok Dal with other parties, but after four years of infighting in the party, he joined Charan Singh's Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party and became its chief. Samajwadi Party was formed later. Mulayam Singh became close to Mayawati after realising that Dalit unification was the best way to remove the BJP from power. What happened next was history.