Editorial: Mascot of Mandal politics

The passing away of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the mascot of Mandal politics, marks the end of an era in Uttar Pradesh politics in which he strode like a colossus during a career spanning over five decades. Trained as a wrestler, he chose the political Dangal as his stage where he set new rules and dominated […]

The passing away of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the mascot of Mandal politics, marks the end of an era in Uttar Pradesh politics in which he strode like a colossus during a career spanning over five decades. Trained as a wrestler, he chose the political Dangal as his stage where he set new rules and dominated the game. While his political career had its own share of setbacks and successes, the three-time Chief Minister will be remembered for bravely stalling the Hindutva wave in the Hindi heartland. What set him apart from other politicians was his ability to bring social coalitions together, ending the domination of the upper castes in power politics, giving voice to the marginalised and empowering the backward classes. However, on the flip side, Mulayam’s legacy is tainted by the unabashed pursuit of nepotism and caste politics and the induction of criminals into the party. The Samajwadi Party founder had inducted several family members and relatives into his party who also got elected to the two Houses of the UP Legislature and Parliament over the years. There was a time when more than ten members of his family held important political positions. However, in the twilight years of his life, Mulayam, a seven-time MP and eight-time MLA suffered a personal setback when his family got split into two warring camps due to the conflicting political ambitions of its members. He was at the helm when the post-Mandal 27% reservation for OBCs was implemented — triggering social churn that nudged the BJP to project Kalyan Singh, an OBC leader, as CM in 1991.

The coming to power of Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1989 heralded a long period in State politics during which upper castes were kept away from power. This phase — unbroken except for short periods in 1999-2000 and 2000-2002 when Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh became CMs — ended only with the coming to power of Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur, in 2017. One of the criticisms against his regime was that only the Yadav community had cornered all the benefits and controlled the levers of power, leaving the other OBCs in the lurch. The MY (Muslim-Yadav) combination was the bedrock of the SP’s support base and it stood the test of time, as revealed by the party’s vote percentage under Akhilesh Yadav in this year’s Assembly polls. This earned Mulayam the nickname ‘Moulana Mulayam’. In the 1993 Assembly polls, held against the backdrop of a communally surcharged atmosphere following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the BJP’s hopes of gaining from a perceived Hindu consolidation were scuttled by Mulayam, who allied with the BSP, and formed a coalition government. In the last five years since his son Akhilesh took charge of the party, Mulayam withdrew into a shell and in the changing internal dynamics, his importance started diminishing.

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