A ten-time member of the Legislative Assembly, member of the Legislative Council and the Leader of Opposition for several times as well, Mulayam Singh Yadav was a prominent figure in Indian politics. In September 2022, Yadav was admitted to hospital and put on a ventilator after his condition deteriorated. He had been hospitalized for a month.Yadav died on 10 October 2022 at age 82 in a hospital in Gurgaon. His last rites were performed with full state honours at his hometown Saifai.Groomed by leaders such as Ram Manohar Lohia and Raj Narain, Yadav was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh in 1967. Yadav served eight terms there.In 1975, during Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency, Yadav was arrested and kept in custody for 19 months.
He first became a state minister in 1977. Later, in 1980, he became the president of the Lok Dal (People's Party) in Uttar Pradesh, which became a part of the Janata Dal (People's Party) afterwards. In 1982, he was elected leader of the opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and held that post until 1985. When the Lok Dal party split, Yadav launched the Krantikari Morcha party. In 1996, Yadav was elected to the eleventh Lok Sabha from Mainpuri constituency.[5] In the United Front coalition government formed that year, his party joined and he was named India's Defence Minister in the Deve Gowda ministry. That government fell in 1998 as India went in for fresh elections, but he returned to the Lok Sabha that year from Sambhal parliamentary constituency.After the fall of Atal Bihari Vajpayee union government in April 1999, he did not support the Congress party in the formation of the union government. He contested the Lok Sabha general elections of 1999 from two seats, Sambhal Lok Sabha constituency and Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency, and won both seats. He resigned from the Kannauj seat for his son Akhilesh in the by-elections.