10-year-old boy sets out on journey alone to attend SP patriarch’s funeral in Saifai

PTI, Oct 15, 2022, 11:38 AM IST

Mulayam Singh Yadav (credit : ANI / File)

Maharajganj: Saddened by the death of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, a 10-year-old “supporter” left his house here alone to attend the leader’s funeral in Uttar Pradesh’s Saifai village.

A video of supporter Shyamlal Yadav also surfaced on social media, in which he is seen describing himself as a “star campaigner” of the party.

According to information, the child set out on an over 500 km-long journey on Tuesday.

After reaching Gorakhpur, he took a train for Saifai but wandered off and could not reach the village for the leader’s last rites.

He was stopped by the Government Railway Police in Kanpur.

A video of a conversation between police personnel and the 10-year-old boy surfaced on social media on Friday. In the video, the child can be heard saying that he is from Laxmipur of Maharajganj and reached Gorakhpur on a train alone.

From there, someone told him the wrong way and he was lost.

Shyamlal Yadav is also heard describing himself as the “star campaigner” of the SP and expressed regret for not attending the funeral of “Netaji”.

The child’s father Shiv Kumar Yadav told PTI that he got a call from the GRP, Kanpur, on Wednesday night. “They told me that my son is safe with them and asked me to take him back.” He went to Kanpur and returned with his son on Friday morning.

He said when Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav heard about the incident, he called party leaders in Maharajganj, asking them to bring the 10-year-old to Safai so that he could pay his respects to the leader.

Mulayam Singh Yadav passed away at the age of 82 at a private hospital in Haryana’s Gurugram on Monday. His last rites were held at his native Saifai village in Etawah district where a sea of crowd descended to pay tributes to him.