The war of words between Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma and Samajwadi Party leaders turned bitter on Sunday with Uttar Pradesh PWD and Irrigation Minister Shivpal Yadav accusing Verma of smuggling opium and smoking cigarettes mixed with charas.
While talking to reporters, Shivpal said: “You know and you have also read that Beni smokes a lot. These days he is smoking a lot... he mixes ‘something’ in tobacco. He should undergo treatment for this.”
He said Beni Prasad Verma consumed charas mixing it in his cigarettes and he was an old addict. He also wondered why the Central Government was tolerating such a person in the Ministry.
Shivpal’s salvo came a day after Beni Prasad Verma said there will be a “funeral procession” for the SP after the next lok Sabha elections and predicted it would win only four seats in Uttar Pradesh. Beni had also accused SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav of cheating Muslims over the Babri Masjid issue. “Mulayam has cheated Muslims...He did not do anything to save Babri Masjid,” he told reporters in lucknow on Saturday.
The SP, while demanding Beni’s removal as the Steel Minister from the Union Cabinet over the “funeral procession” comment, said he has lost his “mental balance”.
Hitting back at Beni, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav appeared to suggest that it will be the Congress which will get no more than four to five seats.
“Parties which struggled to get 5,000-10,000 votes in the Assembly polls in most of the constituencies will not be able to win more than 4-5 seats out of 80 constituencies in lok Sabha elections,” Akhilesh had told reporters in Allahabad.
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said Beni held a grudge against the party for two successive defeats of his son Rakesh in Assembly polls. Another party general secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha demanded Beni’s “immediate removal” from the Government.
Beni had recently triggered a storm by alleging Mulayam had “terrorist links” leading to calls for his removal from the Union Ministry. He had later regretted his remarks after being ticked off by the Congress leadership.
Beni’s continuing tirade against the SP despite Congress leadership reprimanding him in the past and his soft approach towards BSP had 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 UPA Government depends on support of 22 MPs of SP.