The end was swift and final. After barely a fortnight of hectic wooing and negotiations, Lok Sabha MP and Kurmi leader, Beni Prasad Verma, a former loyalist of UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, quit the Samajwadi Party (SP) and floated his own party, Samajwadi Kranti Dal (SKD) on March 19.

It was a bitter and rancorous finale to an enduring friendship between Yadav and Verma, who had stood by the SP chief ever since the party was formed in October 1992. No one can forget Verma’s fierce loyalty to Yadav when he turned down an offer by the BJP to split the SP, and become chief minister, in 1993. It is this allegience that Verma’s supporters point to when they talk of Yadav’s betrayal to his once, most trusted lieutenant.

Last fortnight’s events were fast-paced — after the SP refused to accede to Verma’s demand that the party refuse tickets to state Labour Minister Waqar Ahmed Shah and his son for the coming Assembly elections (Verma has been asking for Shah’s ouster from the Cabinet too, ever since his suspicion of Shah’s hand in the murder of Ram Bhulan Verma, a staunch Beni supporter), matters got out of hand. The SKD was launched by his supporters, they released a list of nominees for over a dozen seats in his home district of Kaiserganj, and in neighbouring Barabanki, Bahraich and Faizabad.

Verma’s son, Minister for Prisons Rakesh Verma, with two other sitting SP MLAs resigned from the SP and declared they would contest the polls on SKD tickets. The SKD also got a shot in the arm after it got Reshma Arif Khan, wife of former Union Minister and now BJP’s Mohammed Arif Khan, to contest on its ticket against Waqar Shah. Verma had defeated Arif Khan in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, today the latter has thrown his might behind his wife and the SKD.

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