With Congress president Nirmal Khatri announcing to stage demonstration at divisional head-quarters in support of farmers on coming Saturday, Congress Working Committee(CWC) member and Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma announced to hold a big rally of the cane farmers in lucknow.
Interestingly, Beni kept himself away from Congress’s recent demonstration carried out by Khatri along with Madhusudan Mistri, who is incharge of the Party’s affair here in UP. He will also not attend the Party’s demonstration announced by Khatri on December 7.
However, to show his `strength’, he will hold the Farmer’s rally in lucknow in which he would also try to bring Congress Yuvraj on the dais just to project him as farmer’s leader.
"I will hold a massive rally of 2-3 lakh cane farmers at Rama Devi ground in the state capital where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would also be invited," he told a press conference here at his residence on Tuesday afternoon. Beni, who refused to join the UP Congress demonstration against the Akhilesh Yadav government's delay in implementing the Food Security Act on November 21 last, said that his rally has nothing to do with the programme of the UP Congress. However to avoid controversy, he said that demonstration against Akhilesh was Party’s programme so even he was not physically present but still he supports the cause for which the workers came on street.
Alleging that the State government and the private sugar mills are hand-in-glove, the Union minister said that lack of political will of the government was the main reason that the cane farmers are not getting Rs 300 per quintal of their produce. He accused SP government for harassing the farmers by taking least concerned in the matters related to them.
When his attention was drawn on the missing of Akhilesh Yadav’s photo in posters of Samajwadi Party's lok Sabha campaign and only Mulayam Singh has been projected, Beni Prasad Verma said Muzaffarnagar riots has given a bad image to the Chief minister hence he was opted out from the campaign. ``Mulayam is feared that people would curse him for riots after seeing him with chief minister Akhilesh Yadav hence he would have got his son’s photo removed", alleged Beni adding that Mulayam Singh Yadav should not forget before removing photo of Akhilesh
Yadav that he too was responsible for many communal riots which he fueled in connivance with Bharatiya Janta Party leader lal Krishna Advani.
Taking on Gujrat’s chief minister Narendra Modi, Beni said that both Modi and Mulayam are common friend using a Mumbai based agency for their campaign. He said that dream of BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi would never be fulfilled to address the nation from Red Fort."Modi will continue to address from Red Fort replica while Rahul
Gandhi will give it from the original one," he claimed. On Mulayam Singh Yadav using an English song for his Party’s campaign, Beni said that he knew SP supreme of having double standard. ``Mulayam earlier objected introduction of computers by Rajeev Gandhi but now his Party distributed laptops", cited Beni adding that now
Mulayam objected use of English language so he would use the same for his Party’s campaign. The Union minister also claimed that the Bill on Communal Violence and the Women Reservation Bill is likely to be tabled in the Parliament during the coming winter session starting from December 5.
Meanwhile spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) Virendra Madan said that on Nirmal Khatri’s call the Party workers will stage a demonstration on all divisional head quarters against anti-farmers decision of State government which included recent cane farmers controversy etc, on coming Saturday. Madan disclosed that in the end of this month, a massive demonstration against State government would be organised in Varanasi to pressurise early implementation of Food Security Act in the State. Congress already held demonstration in the state capital on similar issue on November 21 last.