Mr. Yadav was influenced by the thoughts of the former Prime Minister and the great Kisan leader, late Chaudhary Charan Singh. Mr. Yadav has been in the active politics for past 40 years and fought for the causes of farmers, labourers, youths, students, minorities, dalits and other backward and weaker sections of the society.

In the year 1954, aged 15 years, Mr. Yadav was sent to jail for the first time for taking part in Lohia’s “Nahar Rate Movement.” Thereafter, he was sent to jail on many occasions for taking part in various movements and he has spent over three years in jail. He was jailed for 19 months during emergency. In October 1992, he launched a state-wide movement in the interest of the farmers. He opposed the police firing on the farmers in Ramkola (Deoria) and fought to ensure that they got their cane dues, for which he was again sent to jail.

In 1961-62 he was elected as the President of the Students Union of the Etawah Degree College. In year 1980, he was elected as the President of the Uttar Pradesh Lok Dal. He formed “Krantikari Morcha” after the split of the Lok Dal and later he became President of the UP Lok Dal (B). When Janta Dal was formed, he became its President in UP and successfully conducted the 1989 election campaign.

Mr. Yadav was elected, for the first time, from the Jaswantnagar (Etawah) constituency in the 1967 Vidhan Sabha elections on the ticket of the Samyukta Socialist Party. He was the youngest member of the Vidhan Sabha. In 1974, he was elected to the Vidhan Sabha on the ticket of the Bhartiya Kranti Dal and in 1977 he was elected to the Vidhan Sabha on the Janta Party ticket. In 1977, he became Cooperative and Animal Husbandry Minister in the Janta Party Government and it was during his stint as a minister that the reservation at all the levels was implemented in the cooperative societies for the first time. He also took a historic decision to reduce the interest rates on the cooperative loans offered to the farmers.

In 1974, he became member of the Prati Nidhayan Samiti of the Vidhan Sabha. In 1982, he was elected as Member of the Vidhan Parishad and worked as the leader of the opposition. In March 1985, when he was elected as a Member of the Vidhan Sabha on the Lok Dal ticket for the fourth time, he was made leader of the opposition. Mr. Mulayam Singh is the only leader, who has been elected as the leader opposition of both the houses of the UP Legislature.

In 1989, he was elected again from the Jaswantnagar Vidhan Sabha seat in the general elections.

Mr. Yadav was elected as the leader of the Janta Dal Legislature Party on December 3, 1989 and after two days he took oath as a Chief Minister of UP on December 5, 1989.

In 1991 Vidhan Sabha By-elections, he contested from Jaswantnagar (Etawah) and Tilhar (Shahjahanpur) and emerged victorious from both the constituencies with huge margins.

Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav is a fierce supporter of Indian languages and he gave stress to remove the use of English from public life. During his every reign, he directed all government and semi-government offices to adopt Hindi strictly. Besides, he also ordered to set up training centres for learning eight Indian languages in UP.

On September 29,1992 he parted his ways with the Samajwadi Janta Party and formed Samajwadi Party the very same day. On Novemebr 4, 1992, the first conference of the Party was held, where the Party’s constitution was passed and its policies and programmes were also announced.

In November 1993, he was elected from Jaswantnagar (Etawah), Nidhaulikalan (Etah) and Shikohabad (Firozabad) constituencies in the Vidhan Sabha elections. Later, he was elected leader of the SP Legislature Party.

He became Chief Minister of the State for the second time on December 4, 1993 and led the SP-BSP coalition government till June 1995.

In May 1996, he won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat for the first time and became Union Defence Minister in the government led by Mr. HD Devegowda on June 1, 1996.

In October 1996, Mr. Yadav was elected as a Member of Vidhan Sabha from Sahaswan constituency of Budaun district. He won with a huge margin, but later he resigned from the Vidhan Sabha and continued as MP and the Union Defence Minister.

When the Congress Party withdrew its support from the Indra Kumar Gujral led Joint Front Union Government in 1998, the Lok Sabha by-polls were announced. Mr. Yadav was elected for the second time as an MP from the Sambhal Lok Sabha constituency with a huge margin.

Meanwhile, he became the President of the Rashtryiya Loktantrik Morcha with RJD, which was formed on June 24, 1998 . This Morcha was formed with an objective to strengthen and unite the secular forces to keep the communal forces at bay.

Mr. Yadav led Samajwadi Party to a huge victory in 1999 Lok Sabha elections in the month of October. He was elected from Kannauj and Sambhal Lok Sabha constituencies and won with huge margins both the seats. He is the leader of the SP in the current 13th Lok Sabha.

Mr. Yadav has keen interest in education and agriculture. He was member and manager of several educational institutions. He has deep interest in wrestling and has won several awards in it.