Akhilesh pay tribute to Mulayam Singh Yadav on death anniversary

Etawah: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and several senior party leaders on Friday paid floral tributes to party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav at his native village, Saifai, on his death anniversary.

Prominent SP leaders, including Shivpal Yadav, Rajya Sabha MPs Ram Gopal Yadav and Ramji Lal Suman, and several others attended the memorial event.

Speaking to reporters on the occasion, Akhilesh Yadav said the site would soon house a memorial dedicated to the late SP leader.

"This will be a memorial in Netaji's (Mulayam Singh Yadav) name, a memorial for all socialists. It will continue to inspire generations. Through it, Netaji will live on in our lives in the form of his ideas," he said.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Lal Suman told PTI Videos that Mulayam Singh Yadav held a significant place in India's socialist movement.

"I do not see it as an achievement that he became defence minister or chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. When all socialist factions merged into the Janata Party in 1977, the socialist movement practically ended in India. But in 1992, Mulayam Singh Yadav united socialists across the country to form the Samajwadi Party," he said.

Suman added that as long as "helplessness, unemployment, and inequality" exist in the world, socialist ideology will remain relevant.

"Whether history writes four pages or four lines about him, he will forever be remembered in India's socialist movement," he said.

Senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav, who is also Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother, said the his support base extended far beyond his party.

"Throughout his life, Netaji never turned away anyone who sought his help, even from other parties. I am a witness to it that whenever he was chief minister, he clearly instructed his secretary that if anyone, whether from the BJP, Congress or BSP, came for genuine work or those concerned to their relatives, they should be helped without delay," he recalled.

"He fought for the poor and gave respect to the deprived sections of society. Those who didn't know the way to Delhi, he made them Members of Parliament, those unfamiliar with Lucknow, he made them MLAs," Ram Gopal Yadav said, adding that Mulayam Singh gave the marginalised "the dignity to walk with their heads held high."

Mulayam Singh Yadav (1939-2022), founder of the Samajwadi Party, was a three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister and former defence minister of India.

A veteran socialist leader inspired by Ram Manohar Lohia, he was known for his deep grassroots connect and backward class mobilisation.

Over his five-decade political career, Yadav served multiple terms as both MLA and MP. He passed away on October 10, 2022, at the age of 82. His last rites were done at his native village, Saifai.