UTTAR PRADESH: LAST RITES OF SP FOUNDER MULAYAM SINGH YADAV IN VILLAGE SAIFAI; SEA OF CROWD ARRIVES

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder of Samajwadi Party, passed away on Monday (10 October) while receiving treatment at the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram. He will be cremated on Tuesday at his native village of Saifai, Uttar Pradesh. The cremation is set to occur around 3 p.m., according to the party. The Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and a number of CMs are anticipated to attend the funeral.

At the meantime, a sea of people arrived to attend Mulayam Singh Yadav's funeral in his hometown of Saifai, Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district, despite the cloudy sky and intermittent morning drizzle.

Since Mulayam passed on Monday morning at a hospital in Delhi, his body was transported there by his son Akhilesh Yadav, brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, and cousin Ram Gopal Yadav.

Bhupesh Baghel, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, and Kamal Nath, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, were chosen by the Congress on Tuesday to represent the party at the funeral.

Mulayam Singh Yadav's antim darshan began at the Saifai Mela Ground in Uttar Pradesh. Shivpal Singh Yadav, Ramgopal Yadav, and other SP leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya, Kiranmoy Nanda, and Ram Govind Chaudhary offered tribute after Etawah District Magistrate Avanish Rai spoke on behalf of the President of India. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, a BJP politician, also paid her tributes.

N Chandrababu Naidu, the leader of the Telugu Desam Party and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, also paid his respects to Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Yadav, who was born on November 22, 1939, rose to prominence in UP politics during the chaotic post-'70s era of social and political ferment. Mulayam established himself as an OBC stalwart and emerged as a socialist leader, filling the political space left by the Congress. He originally took the oath as UP CM in 1989, the year that the Congress was voted out of office in the state, failing to retake that position ever since.

As usual, Mulayam Singh Yadav attracted a large following upon his visit to his hometown of Saifai in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. With their mobile cameras activated, they formed a line that was nearly 5 kilometres long on either side of the road, swarming to get close enough to the white bungalow to see their "Netaji." But this time, there was a sombre atmosphere, quiet conversation, and only "Netaji Amar Rahein" slogans to break the silence.