With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar breathing down his neck in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh on Friday welcomed back his “old friend” and prominent Kurmi leader Beni Prasad Verma to the party after nine years.
Mr. Verma, who held the post of Union Steel Minster in the UPA government, left the Congress saying he was feeling “suffocated” since 2014.
While his departure comes as another big loss of leadership for the Congress in the State, ahead of the 2017 polls, from the SP’s perspective it is seen as a move to consolidate its old caste equations . It would also check Nitish Kumar’s aggressive forays into the Kurmi-belt in Purvanchal.
Mr. Kumar hopes to use his Kurmi background to make space in east U.P. and held a convention of workers near Varanasi on Thursday. The Kurmis are the second largest OBC group in U.P., and at present, have a dearth of charismatic leadership.
“I was feeling suffocated in the Congress since last two years. I could not adjust to the Congress’ scheme. I also could not find myself protesting against the Akhilesh Yadav government in any form,” Mr. Verma said, flanked the SP chief and his brother Shivpal Singh.
The move did not come as a surprise as he had in recent months expressed his disappointment with the party and even supported the SP candidate in the MLC elections in February.
A long-time aide of Mr. Singh, Mr. Verma shifted sides to the Congress just before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and since was in the news for his constant verbal attacks on Mulayam.
Among the controversial allegations levelled by Mr. Verma was that Mulayam had connived with BJP leader L.K. Advani to demolish the Babri Masjid.
However, both Mr. Verma and Mulayam Singh decided to let bygones be bygones, saying their focus was now on ensuring the return of the Akhilesh Yadav government. Recalling his “old friend” Beni Prasad’s role in the genesis of the SP, its storming to power and political journey, Mulayam Singh took pains to justify his return as “home-coming”. “Beni Prasad Verma gave the Samajwadi Party its name,” the SP supremo said.
While Shivpal Singh cited “circumstances” for Mr. Verma’s fallout with Mulayam, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, resorted remarked that “old wine, old books and old friends can never be forgotten.”
According to sources, Mr. Verma could be rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat. The SP is in a position to send as many as 11 members to the Upper House. His son Rakesh Verma could also be sent to the State Legislative Council and rewarded with a ministry.
Mr. Verma was a minister in the State for many years before becoming a Minister in the Deve Gowda government in the 1990s. The four-time MP was rewarded with the Union Steel Minister’s post under the UPA when he won from Gonda in 2009. However, in 2014, swept aside by the Modi wave Mr. Verma stood third from the constituency and since felt sidelined.
Reacting to Mr. Verma’s shift, the Congress attacked him for not having an ideology and said he could not live without power for too long. “After the kind of disgraceful language and abuse he has used for Mulayam Singh, he has shifted loyalties just to get a Rajya Sabha seat,” Congress leader and former Minister Satyadev Tripathi said.
BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said Mr. Verma’s return indicated that the SP chief was not confident of fighting the 2017 elections on his son’s development plank and hence had to rely on forging caste equations.
