The last rites of Samajwadi Party founder and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav were held with full state honours in his ancestral village of Saifai in Etawah district on Tuesday, PTI reported.

Yadav died following a prolonged illness at the age of 82 on Monday. He was undergoing treatment at the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram from August 22. His condition had deteriorated on October 2, after which he was shifted to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

The Uttar Pradesh government has announced a three-day mourning for the veteran politician, who was fondly known as Netaji.

On Tuesday, a large crowd arrived to attend Yadav’s funeral in Saifai, where his body was brought and kept at his bungalow for visitors to pay their respects, reported PTI. Around 10 am, Yadav’s body was moved out of the house to a ground.

Frequent chants of “Netaji amar rahe” (long live Netaji) could be heard.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav also reached Saifai village for the funeral, reported NDTV.

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Born in November 1939, Mulayam Singh Yadav first became an MLA at the age of 27. In 1992, he founded the Samajwadi Party and went on to represent the constituencies of Mainpuri, Azamgarh and Sambhal in the Lok Sabha.

Yadav served as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times – from 1989 to 1991, 1993 to 1995 and 2003 to 2007. He also served as the defence minister between 1996 and 1998 in the United Front governments led by HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.

A teacher by profession and wrestler by training, Yadav faced electoral losses after he ordered the firing on kar sevaks at the peak of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in 1990. He, however, made a comeback by portraying himself as a saviour of the Constitution and on a strong Muslim-Yadav alliance.

In 2012, after his party won the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Yadav handed the chief minister’s position to his son Akhilesh Yadav.

However, infighting grew in the family due to his decision to pass the baton to his son, ultimately resulting in his expelling Akhilesh Yadav from the party in 2016, a year ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections. However, the father and son patched things up and Akhilesh Yadav took over the party.