Akhilesh Yadav received the honour on behalf of his father.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously today. Akhilesh Yadav, the president of Samajwadi Party, received the honour, conferred by President Droupadi Murmu, on behalf of his father.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and several Union ministers and other guests were present at the function.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, Zakir Hussain, KM Birla and Sudha Murty are among 106 Padma Award recipients this year. The government announced the names on the eve of the 74th Republic Day.
Yadav, the late founder of the Samajwadi Party, was conferred the Padma Vibhushan - the second-highest civilian honor in the country after Bharat Ratna - in the field of public affairs.
Padma Vibhushan is given for exceptional and distinguished service; Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of high order; and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any field.
Several leaders of the Samajwadi Party, however, are of the view that the Padma Vibhushan award "doesn't do justice" to the standing of the late leader and that he "deserved Bharat Ratna".
Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who was earlier with the BJP, said, "Netaji (as Yadav was popularly referred to) should get a 'Bharat Ratna'. The 'Padma Vibhushan' is not befitting of his stature and personality. The government still has time to honour him with a Bharat Ratna."
Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law and MP from Mainpuri Dimple Yadav said, "It will be our demand from the government to confer the Bharat Ratna on Netaji."
The Samajwadi Party stalwart, a long-time Parliamentarian, died on October 10 last year after prolonged illness. Yadav, born on November 22, 1939 into a farming family in Saifai near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh,spawned the state's most prominent political clan. A three-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav also served as the Union Defence Minister between 1996-98.