Lucknow:
Beni Prasad Verma, Union minister and Congress leader, has given his party a new migraine. In Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad district on Tuesday, he described a key ally which props up the government, the Samajwadi Party, as a "group of liars." Referring to the party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the minister said, "They are dreaming about becoming the PM. But they are not fit enough to get even a sweeper's job at the Prime Minister's residence."
Singling out the Samajwadi Party, to which he once belonged, has become Mr Verma's stock-in-trade, even though the government he belongs to would collapse without the support of Mr Yadav and his 21 Lok Sabha parliamentarians.
"No one takes an insane person seriously neither should you people," said Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party today. But the Congress, which needs to push important legislation through Parliament, knows it cannot afford to alienate Mr Yadav and his colleagues. The government has been in a minority since last year, when Mamata Banerjee pulled her Trinamool Congress from the coalition. In March this year, the DMK also quit the government.
A week ago, the Congress censured Mr Verma for publicly claiming that some Congress leaders work as "the B-team" of the Samajwadi Party. Mr Verma was advised by the party that concerns, if any, should be discussed within the party and not outside.
In March, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to personally nudge Mr Verma to publicly regret his claim at a rally that Mr Yadav has links to terrorists. The minister's party chief, Sonia Gandhi, had to intervene to persuade the Samajwadi Party from ending its demand for Mr Verma's dismissal as minister.
A former minister in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Verma had held various portfolios in successive governments. Once considered close to Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Verma quit the Samajwadi Party in 2007 following differences.