Mulayam Singh Yadav demise: When people in Saifai village gave up one meal a day to help 'Netaji' become MLA

Condoling the demise of their ‘Netaji’, the name which Mulayam Singh Yadav was famous with, people of his native village Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh have countless memories of the leader to share. 

One such memory of the Samajwadi Party patriarch is when the people of the village gave up one meal each day back in 1967 to ensure that Yadav makes his debut as an MLA. 

As reported by News18, Yadav was keen on contesting the 1967 Lok Sabha elections but was running short of funds. During a meeting at Yadav’s house, a local named Sonelal Shakya suggested that if villagers skip one meal a day, Yadav will be able to run his car from that money for eight days, enabling him to canvass and contest polls. 

Locals recall how a combined effort by the village helped Yadav contest and get elected as the MLA from Jaswant Nagar seat of Etawah district for the first time. 

News18 also quoted locals recalling Yadav’s appeal during his speeches where he asked people to “give one vote and one note (one rupee)”, adding that he would return the money with interest if he became MLA. 

The elderly people in Saifai also recall how ‘Netaji’ used to campaign with his friend Darshan Singh on a bicycle and later bought a second-hand car with the donation money but it had to be pushed to its destination with an empty fuel tank. 

Yadav’s struggle in UP’s political arena ended when the then strongman Nathu Singh gave up his seat for the former to step in. He was of the opinion that since Yadav was educated, he should go to the Assembly. 

The 82-year-old SP patriarch, who died on Monday at a Gurugram hospital, was ‘Netaji’ for his supporters, the doughty fighter who spawned Uttar Pradesh's most powerful political clan and never went off the radar - even when he was ailing. Yadav, who founded the SP in 1992 as the campaign for a Ram temple was peaking, was seen as a critical secular counterpoint to the rise of Hindutva politics in the Hindi heartland.

“Netaji sansad mein hote hain ya sadak pe,” his supporters would say often, testifying to his connect with the people as well as his national profile.

Born on November 22, 1939 into a farming family in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav was elected MLA 10 times and MP, mostly from Mainpuri and Azamgarh, seven times. Yadav was also the defence minister (1996-98), and chief minister thrice (1989-91, 1993-95, and 2003-07). And briefly, he even appeared to have a shot at the prime minister's post. For decades, he enjoyed the stature of a national leader but UP largely remained the ‘akhara’ where Yadav played out his politics, beginning as a teenager who was influenced by socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.

For party workers, even when he was no longer the SP president as the mantle passed on to his son Akhilesh Yadav in 2017, the patriarch remained ‘Netaji’. And his presence on the scene provided the glue that held the Yadav clan together, at least to a degree.