Here To Stay

Mulayam means soft in Hindi, but the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had a reputation for being a hard, inflexible politician. Not just because Mulayam Singh Yadav was once a wrestler and a schoolteacher, but also because of the unpopular decisions he took during his first term as chief minister. In 1990, at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, a stern Mulayam had reportedly warned the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, "Wahan parinda bhi par nahi maar sakta (Even birds cannot flutter their wings at the disputed site)." The subsequent firing on the kar sevaks at Ayodhya in which six died, and the arrest of the Shankaracharya of Dwarkapeeth, Swami Swaroopanand, to prevent the shilanyas showed a man who knew what it meant to be tough. It cost Mulayam his job in 1991.

ONE-UP: A convincing majority of 245 MLAs gives Mulayam some stability

Today all that haughtiness has given way to humility. Winning the trust vote on September 8 has brought modesty not arrogance. Political maturity has mellowed Mulayam. Consider his speech on Monday and the subsequent confessions to the media. He apologised for arresting Swaroopanand and denied the "parinda" statement: "I never said such a thing. The media put words into my mouth." The virulent rhetoric against the Sangh Parivar is a thing of the past. The new leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, the BJP's Lalji Tandon, is quick to point out, "Badle badle se mere sarkar nazar aate hain (My chief minister appears changed somewhat)."

BESP REBELLION

Clear Cut

The split in Mayawati's party once again reflected Mulayam's mastery of the art of crossover politics

A THIRD WIN: Tripathi (right) with the BSP rebels When a Mahindra Scorpio zoomed into the office of the Samajwadi Party on Vikramaditya Marg in Lucknow around 4 p.m. on September 6, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav heaved an audible sigh of relief. Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Matesh Sonkar had finally arrived. He was the 37th BSP MLA to cross over. Mulayam's brother Shivpal Singh Yadav had alerted Assembly Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi that 37 MLAs-one-third the strength of the BSP Legislature Party-would float a new outfit that would support Mulayam. But well past noon, the BSP rebels were short of one MLA. The threat of disqualification loomed large. And the stakes suddenly seemed very high for Mulayam. With Sonkar's support, however, it all added up in SP's favour. Mulayam had yet again proved his skill in crossover politics. Admittedly, it did not take much to rally the BSP rebels. The 13-member "suicide squad" of the BSP, including four ministers Rajpal Tyagi, Virendra Singh Bundela, Dinesh Singh and Jaibir Singh, jumped on to the SP bandwagon with little effort. The majority of them were Rajputs who were sympathetic to Independent MLA Raja Bhaiyya who had been jailed under POTA charges. Emphatic as its shift was, the squad did not trigger an exodus in the BSP camp. It was up to Mulayam to rise to the occasion. He had been given 14 days by Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri to prove his majority. Although money power was not as obvious as it usually is, some MLAs allege that a leading business house exploring prospects in the landline telephone sector in Uttar Pradesh had helped rope in some BSP rebels for the SP. Muscle power was more apparent. "We are being harassed by the police to join the SP," alleges Ashok Katiyar, BSP MLA from Kanpur. Echoing him is Kuldip Singh, BSP MLA from Unnao. "I was literally armtwisted by the district administration to back Mulayam but I refused to succumb," he claims. Others like the Vidhayak couple, Chowdhary Bashir and Ghazala Amin, fell in line easily despite the fact that it was Mayawati who had performed the kanyadaan at their wedding. Nothing worked as miraculously as the decision to withdraw the POTA charges against Raja Bhaiyya-15 of the 17 Rajput MLAs in the BSP promptly switched sides. Other factors helped: projection of Mulayam as a democratic leader, an assurance that legal expenses in the event of disqualification would be borne by the SP and an agreement that former ministers would regain their berths. After that there was little Mayawati could do but watch as Mulayam won with a comfortable majority in the Vidhan Sabha.

— Subhash Mishra

Even anti-Congressism of yesteryear is passe. Although the Samajwadi Party today does not need the Congress' support to stay in power in Lucknow, Mulayam publicly appreciated Sonia's support during the confidence motion: "Sonia Gandhi has shown her magnanimity by lending support to the Samajwadi Party despite being dubbed a foreigner by me earlier.'' For someone who prevented Sonia from becoming prime minister in 1999 citing her foreign origins, Mulayam this time round decided against splitting a vulnerable Congress in the state. With an eye on poll 2004, he even met Sonia in Delhi after the trust vote.

Political tolerance of ideological opponents has also led to a new kind of flexibility. A former Mandalite and socialist of the Lohia vintage, Mulayam has begun befriending entrepreneurs and courting corporates. He seems equally at ease with humble farmers from Etawah and Mainpuri as he is with the glamorous celebrities of Bollywood.

Not all, however, are appreciative of the change. His detractors dub Mulayam as an opportunist who dons the capitalist mask even as he swears by socialism. Claims BSP's leader of the House Swami Prasad Maurya: "Opportunism is the real face of Mulayam, under whose regime mafia mast aur janata pasht hai (mafia has fun while the people are terrorised)." Congress Legislative Party leader Pramod Tiwary disagrees. "This is the largest exodus of MLAs in the history of Uttar Pradesh. The terror unleashed by the Mayawati government has forced everyone to rally around Mulayam,'' is how he interprets the situation.

The compulsions of coalition government are the main reasons for the attitudinal change says Mulayam aide T.S. Mehta. "One has to change with the times, especially in a coalition. This does not mean he has shunned his commitments as a socialist and a secularist," he explains.

Pragmatism has always been Mulayam's hallmark. He has also been a master of the art of splitting opponents. After Mayawati withdrew support from his government in 1995, Mulayam sliced away 16 BSP MLAs. Later Mulayam even tried to cannibalise a few MLAs from an ideological ally, the CPI. But the recent split he engineered is unprecedented in magnitude and in terms of political consequences.

Mulayam has even improved as a strategist. The merger of the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal with his Samajwadi Party will prevent a future split as it would take 62 MLAs to overcome the anti-defection law. Now with a strength of 245 MLAs, the Mulayam-led Government seems relatively stable as far as arithmetic can dictate.