Congress leader and Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma’s continuing tirade against Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav despite top leadership of his party reprimanding him in the past and his soft approach towards the BSP has fuelled speculation about the possibility of Kurmi strongman changing his political allegiance.
While predicting that the Congress will win 40 of the 80 seats in the lok Sabha polls, Beni said on Friday, “We will not let BJP win more than 10 seats. Behenji (Mayawati) will win 36. And of whom you are talking about (SP) will win four seats and there will be a funeral procession for that party.”
Beni, who was forced to publically express regret recently on the direction of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his comments about Mulayam having terrorist links, has been defying the party leadership and attacking SP despite being aware of the fact that survival of the UPA Government depends on support of 22 MPs of the SP.
A day after Finance Minister P Chidambaram tried to mollify the SP leaders by assuring all possible financial support to the Uttar Pradesh Government led by Akhilesh Yadav, Beni has not only annoyed the SP by predicting its “funeral procession” in the lok Sabha polls but even accused of cheating Muslims, giving tacit support to the BJP and misusing the funds meant for Dalits and Minorities. Instead, he has predicted the Mulayam’s bete noir Mayawati’s party getting 36 seats in the lok Sabha polls indicating his soft approach to the BSP.
The Congress, which till recently has been distancing itself from Beni’s stand, knows that if it takes any action against, he will get an opportunity to shift his political allegiance and the party will lose OBC particularly Kurmi votes in the elections. So, instead of flaying him, Congress spokesman Sandeep Dikshit on Saturday justified Beni’s comments on the ground that it was a political statement against the SP which is not in alliance with Congress in UP and the two parties will fight elections against each other.
