Akhilesh, senior SP leaders pay tribute to Mulayam Singh Yadav on third death anniversary

Etawah/ Lucknow (UP), Oct 10 (PTI) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and several senior party leaders on Friday paid floral tribute to party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav at his native village, Saifai, on his third death anniversary.

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

The Congress party also paid tributes to the late leader.

Speaking to reporters on the occasion, Akhilesh Yadav said that the site would soon house a memorial dedicated to "Netaji" (Mulayam Singh Yadav).

"This will be a memorial for all socialists and it will continue to inspire generations. Through the memorial, Netaji will live on in our lives in the form of his ideas," Akhilesh 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 that 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 the 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." While the main ceremony was held at Netaji's memorial in Saifai, Samajwadi Party workers and leaders across the districts remembered the late leader with reverence.

At the party's state headquarters in Lucknow, national secretary and former Cabinet minister Rajendra Chaudhary paid homage to Mulayam Singh by garlanding his portrait. Several senior leaders were also present.

Meanwhile, a statement from the Congress' state headquarters said that Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai paid tribute to "the pioneer of socialist ideology, former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, on his death anniversary".

On the occasion, Ajay Rai said that Mulayam Singh Yadav was a grassroots leader who raised the voice of the poor, farmers, labourers, and backward classes. His political life was inspired by the spirit of social justice and equality, Rai said.

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. PTI KIS CDN RUK RUK