Lucknow/New Delhi, Mar 30: The war of words between Union minister Beni Prasad Verma and Samajwadi Party continued today with the latter slamming the Congress leader for his remarks on the poll prospects of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party.
Reacting sharply to Verma's remark, Samajwadi Party said Congress would suffer due to such "baseless" statements and demanded his removal from the Union ministry.
Talking about the poll prospects of various parties in UP, Beni had said yesterday that Mulayam Singh Yadav's party will win only four seats in the next Lok Sabha polls and there will be a "funeral procession" for the party.
While SP General Secretary and national spokesperson Ram Gopal Yadav said here that Verma held a grudge against the party for two successive defeats of his son Rakesh in assembly polls, another party general secretary Ram Asrey Kushwaha said in Lucknow that it was "unfortunate" that a person like him was made a minister and demanded his "immediate removal" from the government.
"Verma is a senior person. He had been associated with SP for a long time. We understand his grudge against the party as his son has lost twice to SP candidates (in assembly polls).
We also know he (Verma) lost the assembly poll from Ayodhya and managed only 400 votes," Yadav said.
He said the media should not give importance to Verma's repeated remarks against SP. "He could be important for Congress, not us...what he says should not be taken as Congress' stand," he said.
SP state unit spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said in Lucknow that Verma will be "nowhere in the next Lok Sabha elections and Congress will have to suffer due to such baseless statement."
He also dubbed Verma as an "ungrateful" person. Kushwaha said Verma has lost his "mental balance" as according to his calculation, all parties combined would get 90 seats, whereas there are only 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
This is not the first time that the Union Steel Minister has ruffled SP's feathers.
In Balrampur on Friday, Beni Prasad Verma said that Mulayam Singh Yadav's party will win only four seats in the Lok Sabha polls and these four will be there to shoulder the "funeral bier" of Samajwadi Party.
Beni, who recently triggered a storm by stating that Yadav allegedly has "terrorist links", said "Congress will fight all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and will win 40.
"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 these four will be there to shoulder the funeral bier of that party," the Congress leader told reporters here.
Beni's total count shows 90, whereas UP has only 80 LS seats.
The Union Steel Minister's remarks come at a time when Yadav has been breathing fire against the government.
Verma had recently angered the SP chief by his comments against him.
Yadav had then demanded his resignation during meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi following which Verma had expressed regret.
However, after a brief lull, Verma had on March 23 launched another tirade against the Samajwadi Party chief, saying those "serving family interest" cannot be termed as socialists.
Yadav had yesterday said he had no plans now to withdraw support to UPA.
"Right now withdrawing support has not been discussed in the party. Now there is no question of SP withdrawing support to the UPA government," he said yesterday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on Thursday acknowledged the possibility of SP's withdrawal of support to UPA.
Samjawadi Party with 22 MPs is providing crucial outside support to the government.
Verma, who was addressing a 'Holi milan' function at Uttraula last evening, alleged that the SP contested Gujarat Assembly elections to benefit Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The minister alleged the state government was trying to take political mileage by distributing laptops from funds meant for the development of minorities and Dalits.
He said ensuring defeat of the SP and victory of Congress has become the objective of his life.
The Congress leader also alleged that the "state government was distributing cheques of Rs 20 lakh to those involved in killing of DSP Zia-ul-Haq in Pratapgarh and history-sheeters".
Beni had recently triggered a storm by alleging that the SP supremo had "terrorist links" leading to calls for his removal from the Union Ministry.
He had later regretted his remarks. SP had maintained that Verma should have personally apologised to Mulayam and expressing regret was not enough.
