People gather to pay tribute to the mortal remains of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, at his native village Saifai in Etawah district, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. (PTI)SP Founder Mulayam Singh Yadav Last Rites Highlights: Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who died while undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on Monday (October 10), was cremated at his native village Saifai in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and others attended the last rites of the former UP CM. Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu and BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi also paid their last respects to the leader at Saiafi ground.
Meanwhile, a sea of people gathered for the last rites of Mulayam Singh Yadav at his native Saifai village in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, amid the cloudy sky and intermittent morning drizzle. His mortal remains were brought to Saifai Monday evening. According to an official statement issued in Lucknow, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had reached Saifai and paid tributes to Yadav yesterday evening. He also paid floral tributes on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and the Uttar Pradesh government, the release said.
Yadav, born on November 22, 1939, rose in UP politics in a period of intense social and political ferment after the 1970s. Emerging as a socialist leader, Mulayam established himself as an OBC stalwart, capturing a swathe of political space vacated by the Congress. He first took oath as UP’s 15th CM in 1989, which marked the year when the Congress was voted out, failing to return to power in the state ever since.
His politics might have seen twists and turns, but two things remained constant in Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s parliamentary career: his stand on “China’s threat to India” and his opposition to the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Yadav was first elected as an MP in 1996 from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, a constituency he won five times including in the 2019 elections. Read more
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who attended the last rites of Mulayam Singh Yadav, said: "We had a very strong relationship. Mulayam Singh Yadav was a big personality in Indian politics, it is a huge loss for the country. We all have come here to pay our tribute to him. PM Modi could not come here but he asked me to pay tribute on his behalf."
Last rites of former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav being performed at his ancestral village, Saifai in Uttar Pradesh.
Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, who died while undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on Monday (October 10), was cremated at his native village Saifai in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and others attended the last rites of the former UP CM.
Actor Abhishek Bachchan, along with his mother actor Jaya Bachchan -- who is also a Samajwadi Party MP, reaches the ancestral village Saifai to pay their last respects to Mulayam Singh Yadav.
'Antim darshan of Mulayam Singh Yadav at Saifai Mela ground has concluded. His body has been taken for cremation.
(PTI photos)
As huge crowds gathered in the pandal trying to reach the stage, Shivpal Singh Yadav appealed to maintain peace and order. He said that body will be taken for cremation soon.
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Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu paid last respects to Mulayam Singh Yadav, at Saifai in Uttar Pradesh.
(PTI Photos)
'Antim darshan of Mulayam Singh Yadav started at UP's Saifai Mela Ground. Etawah district magistrate Avanish Rai paid tribute first on behalf of the President of India, followed by Mulayam's brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, Ramgopal Yadav, and other SP leaders including Swami Prasad Maurya, Kiranmoy Nanda, and Ram Govind Chaudhary. BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi too paid tributes to Mulayam.
The Congress on Tuesday deputed Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath to represent the party at the funeral of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah. Yadav's cremation will be held at his native place today evening.
(PTI Photo)
Even death cannot destroy two things — the soul and memory. Memories emerge from the kritya (acts) of a person. Mulayam Singh Yadav will live on in the hearts and minds of people through his political acts.
Mulayam Singh, popularly known as Netaji, was the typical zameeni neta (grass roots-level leader). In the early years of his political career in Uttar Pradesh, he would go from village to village, sleep in khet- khaliyans and often eat lai-chana. The matti (soil) was a running theme throughout his life. He grew up in the soil of the akhada as a wrestler and then planted his politics in the soil itself and, for his entire political life, tried to speak for the backward, marginalised and minority groups. Badri Narayan writes
As always, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s return to his village Saifai in UP’s Etawah drew hundreds of followers. They formed a queue nearly 5-km long on both sides of the road, their mobile cameras on, jostling to reach the bungalow painted in white to get a glimpse of their “Netaji”. But this time, the mood was sombre, the chatter muted, broken only by slogans of “Netaji Amar Rahein”.
For, inside the bungalow was Mulayam’s body, brought by his son Akhilesh Yadav, brother Shivpal Singh Yadav and cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, from a Delhi hospital where the SP founder breathed his last Monday morning.
Lalmani Verma reports
If the first generation of leaders of Uttar Pradesh — as indeed of other parts of the country — were freedom fighters; the second generation — which emerged from the late sixties onward — were street fighters. Many of these leaders were socialists who cut their political teeth on campuses, fought vigorously for people’s causes, and acquired stature during and after the Emergency.
Mulayam Singh Yadav was the tallest and most prominent leader of this generation — a man who set new rules and benchmarks for political action in UP and, to a significant extent, other parts of North India as well. His passing marks the end of an era.
Shyamlal Yadav writes
Leaders cutting across opposition parties condoled the death of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday. While former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Singh was a leader of high esteem who was respected by everybody irrespective of party lines, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said “the voice of socialist ideas has fallen silent” with his demise.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said “Yadav gave a strong ideology to Samajwadi Party to stand strong against communal forces and worked towards creating a socialist society”, while Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said Yadav was a “towering socialist leader who never compromised with the interests of the poor and the farmers”. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said “the socialist leader will always be remembered for his contribution to uplift the downtrodden”. Read more
Remembering Mulayam Singh Yadav, political cartoonist E P Unny shares an old sketch of the leader.