Why Mulayam Singh Yadav makes Beni Prasad Verma see red

Union minister and Kurmi leader Beni Prasad Verma is in the news once again. Hauled up by the Congress party for lashing out at arch rival Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, he was forced to apologise. A miffed Verma threatened to quit the Congress party saying he felt “humiliated.” A day after this threat, Verma on Friday set off for a four day tour to meet his supporters in his constituency Gonda and his hometown Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh.

Verma had targeted his friend-turned-foe Yadav, advising him that he 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.”

 

Newly-appointed All India Congress Committee Uttar Pradesh incharge Madhusudan Mistry had spoken to the senior Kurmi leader asking him to apologise. The SP renders outside support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (United Progressive Alliance) at the Centre.

A “humiliated” Verma went on record to say, “I am not in politics for the chair or to become a minister. I believe in values...I can quit the Congress any time or it can remove me...I can tender my resignation if Congress becomes an obstacle in my fight with Yadav.”

This is not the first time Verma has fired potshots at Yadav. In April this year, there was a similar episode. The steel minister Verma had attacked his bete noire Yadav, alleging to his “link with terrorists”, a personal remark for which he had to apologise at the behest of the Congress President.

Despite the official gag order, Verma surprised many when he resumed his salvos at the Samajwadi Party chief.

In April, the Samajwadi Party was also not taking it lying down and hit out against Verma. Yadav and his brother Shiv Pal Yadav sharpened their barbs at Verma, calling him an “opium smuggler”. The ongoing fight between the two Uttar Pradesh political heavyweights, says political observers almost resembles a Hindi movie script. Long time trusted friends who fell apart after the entry of a wheeler dealer and the two have been sworn to enmity ever since.

Verma and Mulayam, both old time Socialists, who were both part of Lok Dal and Chaudhary Charan Singh’s movement subsequently went onto form the Samajwadi Party. Along with Azam Khan, they were a formidable combination netting in the Yadav, Muslim and Kurmi votes. In Uttar Pradesh, unlike Bihar lately, Kurmis and Yadavs have been traditionally anti-Congress and a powerful force when together. As prime minister, V P Singh tried to separate the two by offering Beni Prasad Verma the chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh if only he would leave Mulayam Singh Yadav. But Verma did not fall for those blandishments and remained loyal to Mulayam. Verma went onto hold powerful positions within the Samajwadi party, becoming its general secretary. Mulayam also appointed him the public works department minister in the state.

An old time Socialist associate recalls that relations between the two leaders was “so solid” that in 1996, Mulayam was instrumental in making Verma telecom minister in H D Deve Gowda’s cabinet, when Mulayam Singh himself was defence minister. But 1996 also marked the entry of Amar Singh.

Alleges an old timer, “There were numerous occasions when Yadav embarrassed the Kurmi leader in front of others.” Another politician recalls that Amar Singh’s growing proximity with Mulayam coincided with the souring of relations between Mulayam and Verma.

The final blow according to some, was when the Kurmi leader found his importance being undermined among his own community. Verma wanted some party workers allegedly involved in the murder of  a Verma loyalist to be penalised which Yadav did not pay heed to. In Verma’s area of influence, Barabanki, Gonda and Bahraich, Mulayam began promoting rivals to Beni, cutting the ground from under his feet.

Verma then gravitated to the Congress and was formally given a ticket in 2009 and caught Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s attention, who saw in him an opportunity for the party to latch itself onto the Kurmi votebank. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi relied heavily on Verma’s advice in ticket distribution in UP: the results were immediately visible. The Congress won 21 seats, whereas in 2004, it had won just nine. This was largely the Kurmi factor. The Congress won in places like Bahraich, Ghosi and Gonda, where the last time the party had won the seats was in 1984 after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

However, in the assembly elections, the Congress could not come up to scratch. Not only did candidates Beni had backed lose, but even his son Rakesh was unable to win the election.

A fact that has been another cause for bad blood between the two leaders, which gave enough meat to both Mulayam Singh and his brother to taunt the Kurmi leader and his son for not being able to recover his (Rakesh’s) deposit.

This has been hotly contested by Rakesh Verma, who, speaking to Business Standard said, “I definitely did not lose my deposit. For the record, I polled 58,000 votes. As for whatever Mulayam Singh Yadav has said about me, he is a very senior to me and a senior leader. I would not like to comment on it.” He added, “I have known him since I was a kid but I have had no contact with him for the past ten years.”

SP senior leaders allege Beni Prasad Verma as a “bewaafa” (traitor), recalling the pivotal role that Mulayam Singh Yadav played in the making of Verma, the senior politician.  “It was Netaji who has made him the leader he is today.” SP insiders say that Verma having being grossly humiliated by the defeat of his son in the assembly polls, has now sought to gain some publicity by resorting to slandering  of a senior leader like Mulayam Singh Yadav. “He wants to stay relevant through controversy because as his hold over the Kurmi vote is non- existent,” says a senior SP leader.  

But the real reasons for Mulayam Singh Yadav’s intemperate reactions are two: one, Beni prasad Verma knows all Mulayam Singh’s secrets, political as well as non-political; and two, it is almost certain the entire Kurmi caste, which is watching the battle between the two sides, is likely to decamp from the SP fold. This will harm Yadav badly. Those in the know say that if elections were to be held in UP right now, SP’s seats might come down from 22 to 14.

The Beni Prasad Verma-Mulayam Singh Yadav is not a political fight: it is a personal war to prove who will be the bigger leader in the eyes of his caste. Hence the provocative statements, the insulting remarks.