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As a young man, he trained as a wrestler before being attracted to socialism, eventually becoming Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh three times and Union Defence Minister in the H D Deve Gowda government during the 1990s. Mulayam Singh Yadav, (once labelled ‘Maulana Mulayam, for his closeness to Muslims) knows how to make a deal, how to get on with other political parties. He is very good at negotiating.
In 1996, Yadav came within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister and was pipped at the post by Deve Gowda, who himself was second choice to head the United Front Government after Jyoti Basu.
Ahead of the presidential election, the Samajwadi Party chief joined hands with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in rejecting Pranab Mukherjee’s name.
For two Lok Sabhas in a row, Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, established in 1992, has been the third largest party behind the Congress and BJP.
Showing his political astuteness, towards the end of UPA –II, the SP supremo specialised in sending conflicting signals about his party’s relationship with the ruling Congress. And he started, very publicly, preparing the SP for early Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2009 manifesto, Yadav proposed to ban English and computers. He later retracted. His alliance with old rival Kalyan Singh’s party ahead of the 2009 polls also made him look like a hypocrite.
