Mulayam Singh Yadav (22 November 1939 – 10 October 2022) was an Indian politician, a socialist figure and founder of the Samajwadi Party.

[9] Yadav paternally belonged to Itoli village, Jasrana Block, Firozabad District, Uttar Pradesh, India.

[15][16] Groomed by leaders such as Ram Manohar Lohia, Raj Narain, Anantram Jaiswal and Chandra Shekhar, Yadav was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh in 1967 from Jaswantnagar on a ticket of Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP), the party founded by Anantram Jaiswal and George Fernandes.

[20] In 1990, a large body of Sangh Parivar and Vishwa Hindu Parishad supporters reached Ayodhya and attempted to attack the 16th-century Babri mosque.

[21][22][23][24][25][26] Muslims in Uttar Pradesh credited Yadav for saving the mosque in 1990 and became the major voting bloc of Samajwadi Party.

[27] After the collapse of the Union government led by V. P. Singh in November 1990, Yadav joined Chandra Shekhar's Janata Dal (Socialist) party and continued in office as chief minister with the support of the Indian National Congress (INC).

Mid-term elections to Uttar Pradesh assembly were held in mid-1991, in which Mulayam Singh's party lost power to the BJP.

[34] With the hope of playing a major role at the centre, Yadav contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Mainpuri while still Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav resigned from the Lok Sabha and chose to continue as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh until the 2007 elections, when he lost to the BSP.

[7] In the United Front coalition government formed that year, his party joined and he was named India's Defence Minister in the Deve Gowda ministry.

That government fell in 1998 as India went in for fresh elections, but he returned to the Lok Sabha that year from Sambhal parliamentary constituency.

He also said that during his term as defence minister in the Deve Gowda ministry, he had ordered the Indian Army to cross into Pakistan in response to attacks.

One of the groups, led by Akhilesh, enjoyed the support of his father's cousin and National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.

[46] On 30 December 2016, Mulayam Yadav expelled his son Akhilesh and his cousin Ram Gopal from the party for six years on the grounds of indiscipline, only to revoke the decision 24 hours later.

But the Election commission of India ruled that Ram Gopal Yadav had the right to convene that executive convention, and reversed Mulayam's order.

They include political corruption, abuse of power, interference in legal proceedings, promoting toxic patriarchal mindsets, and insensitive statements on serious matters.

[60][61] Additionally, political leaders like MNS chief Raj Thackeray and the then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi heavily condemned Yadav for making such insensitive comments regarding women when they appeared on prime time TV show Aap Ki Adalat, hosted by Rajat Sharma.

[66] Yadav, his son Akhilesh (for insensitive remarks on 2014 Badaun gang rape), and several other Samajwadi Party leaders like Abu Azmi and Azam Khan were eventually labelled as "Supporters of Rape and Rapists", as their comments led to a rise in rape incidents across Uttar Pradesh and deteriorated safety of women and young girls, which eventually was one major factor that led the Samajwadi Party to suffer a major defeat in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections.

"[55][57] On 10 July 2015, ex Indian Police Service officer and President Adhikar Sena, Amitabh Thakur allegedly got a phone call from Yadav.

[72][73][74] Yadav was criticised for his actions in the Ayodhya firing incident in 1990, which led to the death of 17 Kar Sevaks by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

[75] In 2004, following the arrest of SP leader Mukhtar Ansari by Deputy Superintendent of Police Shailendra Singh, Yadav, as then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, attempted to influence the event and prevent it.

[76] Ansari died of a heart attack on 28 March 2024, while he was serving prison sentence on the charges of murder and fake arms licence case.

Yadav also attempted to interfere in rape case against Gayatri Prasad Prajapati by ordering the Uttar Pradesh Police to not register any FIR against him.

Subsequently, Prajapati was arrested in March 2017 after absconding for long, and he was convicted of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2021.

[79][80] Yadav has faced widespread condemnation by several opposing leaders for promoting toxic patriarchal mindsets, as well as misogynistic and anti-women views.

[81] Yadav echoed similar comments in November 2012, stating that "the bill will benefit only rich and attractive women of the society and not those coming poor families and villages".

His first wife, Malti Devi, was in a vegetative state from 1974 until her death in May 2003 following complications while giving birth to their only child, Akhilesh Yadav.

[95][96] Main Mulayam Singh Yadav, an Indian Hindi-language biographical film by Suvendu Raj Ghosh based on his life, was released in 2021; with Amyth Sethi playing the title role.

One of his celebrated and notable decisions during his tenure as the Cabinet Minister in the Union Government was the historic change in the armed forces law regarding disposition of bodies of fallen soldiers, ensuring that the mortal remains of martyrs reached home.

Yadav as the Defence Minister introduced a landmark law for the bodies of the slain armed forces personnel to be brought back with full respects to the families at the home of the martyred and mandatory state honour funeral to be organised.