Some Congressmen worked as SP’s B team in Assembly polls: Beni

Without taking any names,the Congress MP from Gonda said: “Congress leaders took money from their party and gave it to SP candidates so that the Congress candidates are defeated during the Assembly elections. There were a section of leaders who clearly worked as B team of the SP in the Congress.”

Verma said steps like the announcement of 4.5 per cent quota within quota for minorities,raising the Batla House issue,making Rahul Gandhi stay at Shibli college in Azamgarh — taken at the behest of Congress leaders — were all part of a conspiracy to influence the UP elections. “We ended up making the people belonging to the backward castes as well as the minority unhappy in the state.”

Alleging that these leaders were now getting several perks from the SP government,he said: “Congress barbaad ho gayi aur Congressi neta abaad ho gaye.”

Beni also alleged that the Congressmen paid Rs 5 crore to the SP to defeat his son,Rakesh Verma ,who had contested the Assembly elections from Dariyabad in Barabanki district. He said at some places “party tickets were sold to such people who did not contest election at all”.

When asked whether he had communicated all this to the party high command,he said,“Rahul Gandhi is alert and understands everything now and all such leaders,who have been involved in conspiracy against the party,would be punished.”

Beni’s statement comes a day after a group of SP workers created ruckus during his public meeting in Bahraich,showing him black flags and forcing him to leave the dais minutes after he started his speech.

Verma was there to lay the foundation stone of a steel processing plant and was speaking about the failures of the SP government.

“The protest was pre-planned,common men do not sit ready with black flags. People have the right to protest but there is a way for everything,” Beni said.

For tie-up with BSP to defeat Mulayam

Challenging SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav,Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said he would ensure that Yadav lost from Mainpuri in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections even if it meant that they have to go for a tie-up with the Bhaujan Samaj Party (BSP).