LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh died Monday morning. He was 82. He died at Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital where he was undergoing treatment for illness.

His son is Akhilesh Yadav, former chief minister of UP and SP president. His wives were Malti Devi and Sadhana Gupta. Malti Devi died in 2003 and Sadhana Gupta in July this year. Mulayam had served as the chief minister of UP thrice and has defence minister once. He is presently a member of the Lok Sabha from Mainpuri. He had been MP from Asamgarh and Sambhal earlier.

Mulayam was born on November 22 in 1939 to Sughar Singh Yadav and Murti Devi in Saifai village of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh. He reached the UP Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1967. Mulayam was arrested during Emergency in 1975 and spent 19 months in jail. He entered the ministry for the first time in 1977.

He became the President of the Lok Dal Party in 1980. He became the chief minister of UP for the first time in 1989. Samajwadi Party was formed in 1992. In 1993, he faced the elections with BSP. The government was formed with the support of Congress and Janata Dal. In 1995, the government collapsed when the allies withdrew.

Mulayam represented Mainpuri in the 11th Lok Sabha and became the Defence Minister in the coalition government in 1996. When the central government fell in 1998, he later reached the Lok Sabha from Sambhal constituency. In 1999, he contested for the Lok Sabha from Sambhal and Kannauj and won. When he resigned from Kannauj, his son Akhilesh contested there and won. When the BJP-BSP government fell in September 2003, he became the chief minister for the third time with the support of independents and small parties. He remained the chief minister until he lost the 2007 elections to the BSP.

“My respected father has passed away,” SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, his son, was quoted as saying in a party statement.

Tributes started pouring in soon after the news of his death broke. "The death of Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was also India's former defence minister, is a huge loss to Indian politics. May god grant peace to his soul, and give strength to his family members," the Congress wrote on its official Twitter handle.