JOIN USUnion Minister Beniprasad Verma on Tuesday kicked up another controversy with his barbs at friend-turned foe Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying that the SP chief was not even fit to sweep the Prime Minister’s residence, drawing instant rebuke from the Congress.
“Yadav wants to become Prime Minister. He should first try to get the job of a sweeper at the residence of the PM,” 77-year Verma said at a programme in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad.
He prefaced his remark by alleging that the SP was a party based on “lies and fraud” and that it will be finished by the Congress. Verma was once a close confidant of the Samajwadi Party supremo but was gradually sidelined after Amar Singh came into the picture.
The Kurmi leader quit the party in 2007 and joined the Congress before 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Disapproving of Verma’s remarks, Congress once again ticked him off for his remarks against Yadav saying it was “regrettable and the party totally distances itself from that”.
“I do not know whether he has said anything like this, but if he has done so, it is regrettable. Mulayam Singh Yadav is a big leader and has been in politics for a long time. Verma was an old friend of Yadav.
“The party totally distances itself from it. It has nothing to do with it,” party spokesman Meem Afzal said in Delhi. When asked by reporters whether the party would initiate disciplinary action against Verma, who has been making controversial statements against Yadav, Afzal said that Verma is a Union Minister and wondered what action can the party take.