Mulayam, Modi and BJP: A shared past meant an enmity that was never bitter

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Modi himself referred to one of the highlights of this relationship on Monday, when he talked about what happened on the last day of the last Lok Sabha. As leaders wished each other, an ailing Mulayam said: “I want to congratulate the Prime Minister that he tried to move ahead taking everyone along… I wish the Pradhan Mantriji becomes Pradhan Mantri again.”

Even as Modi acknowledged the unexpected salutation with folded hands, the Opposition was stunned.

But Mulayam, who had been a fellow traveller with BJP leaders in the anti-Congress and Janata Dal politics of the 1970s and 1980s, never saw any dichotomy in this, and continued to enjoy good relations across the aisle.

After Mulayam’s unexpected praise for PM Modi in the Lok Sabha had left the SP searching for excuses – some colleagues claimed “fading memory” – senior BJP leaders had recalled these roots of Mulayam in “anti-Congressism”. “Some socialist leaders like Lalu Prasad have forgotten their origins, but Mulayam Singh, who took away the Congress support base among the backwards and Muslims, was in the anti-Congress camp in the late 1970s,” said a leader.

The Janata Dal-BJP relationship had ended when the Mulayam Singh government had opened fire on kar sevaks assembled in Ayodhya on the call of Sangh Parivar affiliates. The Parivar hardliners would always attack Mulayam after that for his “appeasement politics” towards Muslims, and his “anti-Hindu” stand.

However, less than a decade later, in 1998, Mulayam would again approach the BJP to stop the Congress from coming to power. In his autobiography, BJP veteran L K Advani says Mulayam came to him with socialist leader George Fernandes for an assurance that the BJP would get the Lok Sabha dissolved if he sabotaged then Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s plans to stitch together a coalition after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP lost the trust vote in 1998.

(Later, Beni Prasad Verma, a close Mulayam associate who at the time had quit the SP to join the Congress, confirmed this pact between Mulayam and the BJP.)

BJP leaders recall that the SP’s 20 MPs at the time could have changed the political scenario in 1999 if the party had offered its support to the Congress.

A quid pro quo reportedly was Mulayam forming the government in UP in 2003 in spite of having only 135 MLAs, with the BJP not staking claim.

A leader said: “The BJP was facing the blowback from the Gujarat 2002 riots, and both Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley convinced Atalji and Advaniji that the BJP should not try to block Mulayam from forming a government in UP. This act made a tall Opposition leader like Mulayam soften towards the BJP, which the party was desperate for.”

However, the leader said, their ties soured soon after. “The goonda elements in the SP hurt the BJP in UP in this time, and the BJP got only 10 MPs from UP in the 2004 elections. Had we got even 20 seats from the state in that election, the UPA government would not have been formed.” The UPA formed a coalition government in 2004, after an election that the BJP had been expecting to win.

The more uncharitable view of the cordial relations Mulayam maintained with the BJP was the court cases against the family.

On the situation now, a BJP leader said that the party and Modi, who enjoy OBC support and are looking for more, do not want to antagonise the Yadavs.

Added a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh: “Mulayam Singh was a mature and pragmatic leader. He became a minister in Uttar Pradesh for the first time with the support of the Jan Sangh. Currently, the section in the SP which is anti-Akhilesh, led by Shivpal Yadav, has a soft corner for the BJP. Mulayam Singh was conscious of it and in order to keep his fold together, he tried to maintain good ties with the BJP.”

BJP leaders feel Mulayam’s absence could deepen the divisions in the SP and the section miffed with Akhilesh could get closer to the BJP.