A day after being reprimanded, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Thursday said he felt “humiliated” and threatened to quit the Congress if he was stopped from “fighting” against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
He denied the claim of AICC in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Madhusudan Mistry’s that he had expressed regret and promised not to speak against Mr. Yadav again.
“My effigies were burnt yesterday. After the statements which have been published in newspapers today, I felt humiliated,” Mr. Verma told a group of reporters here.
“I am not in politics for chair or to become a Minister. I believe in values... I can quit Congress any time or it can remove me... I can tender my resignation if Congress becomes an obstacle in my fight with Yadav,” he added.
His statement came a day after Mr. Mistry reprimanded him for his remarks that the Samajwadi Party chief should “first try to get the job of a sweeper at the residence of the PM if he is nursing ambitions of becoming the Prime Minister.
In an apparent attack on Mr. Mistry, Mr. Verma said there are “multiple centres of power” in Congress. “There is no harm if there were even 10 centres of power but these should be just with an upright intention unlike Uttar Pradesh where various centres of power are indulging in loot and corruption.”
