Late socialist stalwart Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Union minister SM Krishna along with two other politicians will be conferred with Padma awards, the Central government has announced.
While Krishna and Yadav (posthumously) will be honoured with India’s second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan, former Union minister and a senior leader of Manipur BJP, Thounaojam Chaoba Singh and former Tripura minister Narendra Chandra Debbarma (posthumously) will be awarded the Padma Shri.
The most prominent figure on the list, Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away after a prolonged illness in October last year. Born in a small village in UP’s Mainpuri before Independence, Yadav was a government teacher by profession and wrestler by hobby in his initial days. He was first elected as a member of the UP legislative assembly from Jaswantnagar in Etawah in 1967.
Groomed by socialists like Ram Manohar Lohia, Yadav established the Samajwadi Party in 1992 which is the largest socialist party in the country. He served as chief minister of UP for three terms. He was a national leader but kept UP as his political field. Like most regional leaders, he also harboured the ambition of becoming the prime minister which did not materialise.
During the peak days of his political career, Yadav called the BJP – the government selected him for the honour, but lauded PM Narendra Modi several times during the last days of his public life.
Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna – selected for Padma Vibhushan – served as minister of external affairs during the Congress-led UPA government between 2009 and 2012. He also served as the 16th chief minister of Karnataka between 1999 and 2004, and the governor of Maharashtra for four years till 2008.
The Karnataka leader also served as the state assembly speaker and member of both houses of parliament several times. After spending nearly 50 years in Congress, Krishna walked away to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017 as the fortunes of the grand old party continued to dwindle.
Thounaojam Chaoba Singh – one of the two Padma Shri awardees from the northeastern state of Manipur – has been in public life for the last four decades. This 86-year-old leader started his political career with Congress and served as an MLA for five times and as a Lok Sabha member. He later became part of a regional party named the Manipur State Congress Party and was elected Lok Sabha MP from the party for two terms.
Singh also served as the deputy speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, a Cabinet minister and the deputy chief minister. He is currently the chairman of the Manipur BJP’s election management committee.
Padma Shri nominee Narendra Chandra Debbarma died earlier this month while he was serving as the minister of revenue in Tripura. He was the president of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). Before joining politics, the tribal leader was the station director of All India Radio for several years. Debbarma played a key role in the alliance with the BJP ahead of the 2018 assembly elections in Tripura.