Beni Prasad Verma: Brazen,blunt and blessed by Rahul Gandhi

In the winter session of Parliament in 2009,he made some disparaging remarks about former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to apologise on his behalf.

The UPA got a taste of his ways in January 2011 when he was about to be made a minister. Verma told cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar he would not attend the swearing-in ceremony after he realised he would be made a minister of state with independent charge while he had been a cabinet minister in the United Front government.

He relented only after Ahmed Patel pacified him and promised that he would be given an important position soon. Two months later,Verma,a Socialist from Uttar Pradesh who swore by Ram Manohar Lohia and Chaudhary Charan Singh,was inducted into the Congress Working Committee as a permanent invitee. And in July 2011,he was made a cabinet minister.

Verma’s rise in the Congress is attributed to Rahul Gandhi’s desperation to get the better of the identity politics of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh. Verma is a Kurmi and was a crucial sounding board for Rahul as he sought to strike the right social composition in the candidate selection for UP elections in 2012.

So complete was Rahul’s trust in Verma that the then Congress general secretary ignored public protests against Verma in rallies addressed by them and even warned party workers of stern action. Although Rahul’s calculations and leadership failed,his blessings meant that attempts by a section of the party to blame Verma got nowhere.

Political sources believe that Verma’s closeness to Rahul ensured he would not be dropped from the cabinet last year and it is for the same reason he has escaped with an apology this week.

Verma moved towards the Congress after he fell out with his long-time political fellow-traveller Mulayam in 2006 after Mulayam apparently did not accede to his demand to punish political workers allegedly involved in the murder of a political worker loyal to Verma.

Although Congress treasurer Motilal Vora,who was UP governor then,sent feelers to Verma,he was formally inducted into the party and fielded in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. He caught Rahul’s attention after the party did well in his strongholds.

A lawyer in Barabanki before he entered politics,Verma was first elected to the state Assembly in 1974 as a candidate of Chaudhary Charan Singh’s BKD party.

He held important positions in the various anti-Congress formations in Uttar Pradesh: Bharatiya Kranti Dal,Janata Party,Bharatiya Lok Dal,Lok Dal,Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party.

His electoral prowess was first noticed in 1991 when he helped win half-a-dozen seats for the Janata Party when the BJP won a clear majority riding on the Ram temple movement. Verma and Mulayam then went on to co-found the SP,with Mulayam making him PWD minister in the state and cabinet minister for telecom at the Centre.

But since their bitter parting in 2006,Verma has not tried to hide his feelings for Mulayam. And his latest burst of anger came after the SP government withdrew the security he has enjoyed for two decades. The UPA made up for it by providing him Z-plus security.