Senior Samajwadi party leader Beni Prasad Verma is likely to replace Ram Gopal Yadav as the leader of the party in upper house of the parliament -Rajya Sabha. Ram Gopal Yadav, the general secretary and spokesman of the party was expelled from the party on Sunday for making derogatory comments about the SP supremo in his open letter issued to the party men.
Name plate of Ram Gopal Yadav has also removed from the party’s office in Delhi. SP sources that Ram Gopal could resign from the membership of the Rajya Sabha. At present SP has 18 members in the upper house. Ram Gopal Yadav however said on Tuesday that he will not resign from the membership of the Rajya Sabha seat and now he is a free man after his expulsion from the party.
Beni Prasad Verma, the top leader of the numerically dominant OBCs Kurmi community could be the choice of the party for the Rajya Sabha leader though the party has other senior leaders like Reoti Raman Singh and Kironmay Nanda in the upper house. Reoti was the deputy leader in the lok Sabha in the UPA-II when Mulayam was the leader.
Ram Gopal Yadav was expelled from the party for six years for his anti- party activities on Sunday. On Monday, he declared that he would not meet the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and only go with chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, thus indicating that he was in no mood to relent and mend fences with the SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. Ram Gopal also challenged Shivpal and Amar Singh that if they dared criticise him at a public meeting in any part of the state, they would have to face the music. Ram Gopal had so far been the face of the Samajwadi Party in Delhi and in the elite political circles of the national capital. His expulsion from the party has caused a vacuum and that would be filled up soon, SP sources said.
It was Ram Gopal who was about six years back instrumental in the dismissal of Amar Singh from the party. This time, it was vise-versa when, Amar Singh has inadvertently played a key role in sacking of Ram Gopal. In the changed political situation Ram Gopal Yadav is the favourite `Chacha’ of Akhilesh Yadav and another `Chacha’ Shivpal Yadav is enemy number 1. Ram Gopal said on Tuesday that ``usually a father is always proud of his success but here the reverse is happening. Earlier the Samajwadi party was known to be a party of `goondas’ but it is Akhilesh who changed this narrative.”
Ram Gopal said that that Mulayam Singh is failing to recognise the popularity of his 43-year-old son, who, in 2011, promised jobs and a better education to the youth of one of India’s most backward states, and accrued a massive win for the Samajwadi Party. But Shivpal and others argue that the 2014 national election, in which the tally of the party was reduced to mere five seats, that too all from one family, was a warning sign that Akhilesh was not delivering which was ignored at great peril.