The move of the senior Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Verma to ensure a ticket for his son Rakesh Verma from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) seems to have failed as the veteran leader is not ready to quit his Rajya Sabha seat and join BJP.
Verma, who already made up his mind to give Akhilesh Yadav’s blue-eyed boy Arvind Singh Gope a serious challenge on Ramnagar Assembly segment in Barabanki, is likely to now field Rakesh Verma on lok Dal ticket.
Interestingly, Akhilesh Yadav just not denied Rakesh a ticket from Ramnagar but had also not included name of Beni Prasad Verma in Party’s star campaigner list released on Tuesday.
Sources said that to appease Verma, the prominent Kurmi leader of SP, Akhilesh Yadav had given him ticket from Kaiserganj Assembly seat but Beni out rightly refused the offer and made a move to get his son inducted in BJP and contest from Ramnagar. However, sources confirmed that BJP top leaders wanted Beni also to resign from his Rajya Sabha seat and join the Party if he wanted a ticket.
According to sources, Beni, who is not confident of his son’s victory refused to make a sacrifice and reportedly suggested that he will continue as MP though he can join BJP along with his son. However, the BJP refused and on Tuesday, they also announced Sharad Awasthi, as the official candidate from Ramnagar Asssembly seat after which Beni now reportedly made a move to field his son on lok Dal ticket from the same constituency. However, no announcement has been made in this regard so far either by Beni Prasad Verma or by lok Dal president Sunil Singh.