Alttag--Mulayam Singh Yadav Lucknow: Twice Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as many times Defence Minister at the Centre, Mulayam Singh Yadav, noted for his strong commitment to social justice and secularism on August 29 assumed the Chief Ministership of the state for the third time.

Starting his political career in 1967 as an MLA from Jaswantnagar, Etawah on the Socialist Party ticket, he went on to become the chief minister in the Janata Dal government in the state in 1989.

He formed his own Samajwadi Party in 1992 and again became Chief Minister in December 1993 with the support of newly emerging force of dalits, BSP (Bahujan Samaj party). The support was, however, withdrawn in June 1995.

In between, he was Defence Minister in two United Front Cabinets at the Centre.

Born in an ordinary peasant family on November 22, 1939 in village Saifai in Etawah district, he completed his post-graduation from Agra University and went on to become a lecturer in an inter-college in Mainpuri district.

An active student leader, Yadav was influenced by socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and it was at his call that he jumped into the canal rate agitation and went to jail at the age of 15.

He took part in the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)-led movement against corruption and emergency and went to jail.

Yadav's earlier two tenures were from December 1989 to May 1991 and December 1993 to June 1995.

He became the youngest MLA in the state on being elected to the Assembly in 1967. He was again elected to the house in 1974 and 1977. In 1977 he was appointed minister for cooperation and animal husbandry and ensured reservation for scheduled castes and tribes in cooperative institutions.

In May 1996, he won the Lok Sabha election for the first time from Mainpuri and on June 1, 1996 he became the Defence Minister in the H D Deve Gowda government.

In 1998, he again joined the Union government in the United Front government led by I K Gujaral and became Defence Minister.

Yadav always strove for the unity of secular force and for this purpose in 1998 he joined hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav and formed Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha.

He was again returned to the Lok Sabha in 1999 with a huge margin contesting from two seats simultaneously.

Yadav recently joined hands in the state with the main Opposition parties including Rashtriya Kranti Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Congress and staked claim to form the government after Mayawati's BSP- BJP coalition government resigned even as BJP withdrew support to it.

PTI