Congress working committee member and Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said the much-hyped chaurasi kosi yatra and the tension it created in Uttar Pradesh was a “fixed match” between the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
“Every single individual knows that this (yatra) is a conspiracy between the SP and the VHP to divide the state on communal lines before the lok Sabha election. This was done to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party and the SP,” Verma told reporters here on Sunday. Verma, an arch-critic of Mulayam Singh Yadav, alleged that such a conspiracy was going on since 1990 when an attempt was made to demolish the disputed structure at Ayodhya.
“The yatra will have no impact on the prospects of either the BJP or the SP and instead the Congress will be benefited by this issue,” he added. Verma also criticised UP Congress leaders, including its president Nirmal Khatri, for their meek criticism of VHP’s yatra. “The UP Congress leaders were unable to fathom the gravity of the situation and gave meek statements forcing me to jump in on this issue,” he said.
Hitting out at the UP Congress president, who is also the Member of Parliament from Faizabad, Verma said “the Congress will do very well in UP and only the unfortunate ones will lose election this time.” Verma also said that Congress in-charge of UP, Madhusudan Mistry, was a good person but he had no political understanding of the state.