Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has turned a corner and is headed straight to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The 72-year-old national president of Uttar Pradesh’s ruling party can be found interacting with party functionaries at the outfit’s headquarters on Vikramaditya Road in Lucknow. If he is not attending Parliament and is in Lucknow, Yadav makes it make it a point to meet almost every worker, most of who come with an application or two in his hand. “I know the chief minister will have little time, so I am meeting them to solve their petty issues,” Yadav says. Almost as an afterthought, he adds: “Also , the Samajwadi Party has to win all 80 Lok Sabha in 2014.”
The former chief minister has come a long way to be in the national reckoning again. Less than five years ago, Yadav was isolated in Uttar Pradesh and marginalised in the Congress–dominated political landscape of the nation; even his old Left bloc allies had dumped him.
The trouble had begun even before Yadav lost to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). When he was chief minister, then governor T V Rajeshwar had given him more than one sleepless night with his letter bombs on different issues, ranging from the law and order situation to the controversial building of a Urdu university in Rampur. That friction ended with the Yadav eclipse of the 2007 elections, the people of the state replacing him with his chief adversary Mayawati with a record number of 206 MLAs.
The five years from 2007 to 2012 saw the Samajwadi Party and its chief at the receiving end, both from the BSP government in the state, and the UPA II government at Centre. Despite having 36 MPs till 2009 and then 23 MPs post-2009, the Samajwadi Party was kept at arms length by the Congress.
By 2009, Yadav’s humiliation was complete, when Dimple Yadav, his daughter-in-law suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of Congress candidate Raj Babbar. So shattered was Yadav’s confidence that he hurriedly embraced his traditional rival and BJP discard Kalyan Singh. It got worse: in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Yadav’s tally in Parliament nosedived from 36 to 23. It seemed Yadav could sink no lower.
And he didn’t, making 2012 the year of his comeback. Yadav deftly leveraged the general dissatisfaction against an increasingly dictatorial Mayawati, the lax law and order situation, and an atmosphere of corruption. Uttar Pradesh was ready to go back into Yadav’s arms, and he opened them wide at the right time.
This led to his spectacular comeback in March 2012, leaving all his political adversaries, from the Congress to the BJP and the BSP, shellshocked. The doughty fighter of yore had fought against the odds and turned the tide in his favour. His comradeship with grassroot workers and his spirit to fight back even in a lean phase paid him rich dividends.
It’s a trait Yadav has cultivated with even more zeal. No other leader meets as regularly with party workers as Yadav, and he makes his happiness about it quite evident.
Today both father and son, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, are much sought after by those very people who had written them off in the runup to the Assembly elections.
On the occasion of UPA II’s third year in power, and the alliance’s eighth consecutive year in power, Congress president Sonia Gandhi made sure Yadav Senior got the greatest respect. She chose to sit with him, sidelining all other key partners of the UPA coalition. The spell had been well and truly broken; mistrust and suspicion had been replaced with warmth and credibility.
The Congress-led UPA is talking sweet with the ruling party of Uttar Pradesh and is ready to extend “every possible help to see progress and prosperity of the state”. The Congress leadership consults the senior Yadav on almost every major decision and policy matter.
The post of the governor in Raj Bhawan has fallen vacant after the completion of term of the incumbent B L Joshi, but the Centre has not filled up the post as it wants to “consult” Yadav and is willing to send a man who is not hostile to him. It is nearly two months since the post fell vacant and the UPA government has not named any successor to Joshi .
The BJP too has chosen to remain soft on the Akhilesh Yadav-led government. Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh has been springing to the defence of Akhilesh Yadav whenever the BSP criticises him over governance issues. “At least six months or a year should be given to Akhilesh Yadav before assessing his performance,” Rajnath Singh said at Lucknow during his last visit. Despite knowing that the Samajwadi Party would never come to the BJP’s side, the saffron party wants to keep Yadav Senior pleased; it was this reason it did not field any candidate in Kannauj against Dimple Yadav. Everybody wants to be in Yadav’s good books now. Even the BSP, the principal Opposition party and the chief adversary of the ruling party, did not annoy Mulayam Singh Yadav and avoided contesting the Kannauj by-election.
The impressive victory of the Samajwadi Party and its growing popularity in state politics has once again propelled Yadav to the position of a key player in national politics and rekindled his hopes of becoming prime minister again. This is second time a situation has emerged when Mulayam Singh Yadav is being rated as a formidable leader of national politics. Despite failing health and advancing years, Yadav remains confident.
Not only he is keeping a close vigil on the Akhilesh Yadav government and the ministers, the septuagenarian leader spends a substantial time in the party headquarters meeting ministers, MPs, MLAs, ex-MLAs, office-bearers and even sundry workers of the party who flock to him from far-flung areas. Sometimes he calls son Akhilesh to his office and gives him tips on maintaining balance between the aspirations of the public and good governance. Yadav Senior is already interviewing aspirants who want to contest 2014 parliamentary elections.
Yadav has no time to waste. 2014 is around the corner, and he may have yet another date with history.