INDIA rifts widen as SP’s UP Kurmi face set to join Cong after targeting Akhilesh

Verma, 63, quit the SP along with his daughter Purvi Verma, 33, with both claiming that they were forced to take the decision as the Akhilesh Yadav-led party has allegedly got detached from the people on the ground and has deviated from its founding principles. Both of them will join the Congress on Monday.

An MBBS doctor, Purvi contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Lakhimpur Kheri seat on the SP ticket but lost to BJP leader Ajay Mishra Teni.

Verma’s exit from the SP assumes significance as he is a known Kurmi face in the state, belonging to a prominent political family.

His father Balgovind Verma, the four-term MP from Lakhimpur Kheri, was a minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet. Following Balgovind’s death in 1980, his wife Usha had contested and won from the same constituency thrice.

Later, Ravi assumed their political legacy, winning from the seat three times.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls,Verma was defeated by Ajay Mishra Teni in Lakhimpur Kheri. Purvi also suffered defeat from the same seat in 2019.

“I had joined politics after being impressed with the working of Akhilesh Yadav but now feel sad to say that Samajwadi Party has deviated from the core value of socialism that involves raising the voice for farmers, unemployment, women security,” Purvi told The Indian Express.

“Public perceive things very seriously. They see BJP sending leaders to the ground and they do not see our leaders coming. People watch if the party leadership is only serious about certain seats or people. These things do not go unnoticed among people and party has to pay the price,” she said.

Echoing his daughter’s views, Verma said, “Today, SP is relying on managers rather than leaders. At a time, when BJP is forming booth committees, our district leadership is busy making rounds of Lucknow because party needs managers. For people, who have to contest on ground, these things make it difficult for them.”

Referring to he family’s past connections with the Congress, Purvi described their move to join the grand old party a “homecoming”. Sources said they have already met the All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief, Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

Some Congress leaders claimed that more SP leaders have been in touch with them, who might also join the party soon.

Hitting back, the SP charged that Verma quit the party in his “own personal interest”, even as it also targeted the Congress for “poaching” on its allies rather than taking on the BJP.

“We are supposed to fight BJP as members of INDIA bloc but Congress is instead targeting SP and breaking us. There is a gathbandhan dharma, which they remind us but forget themselves. In alliance, we do not poach on our own partners,” Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary told The Indian Express.

“As far as Verma is concerned, we gave him everything. We sent him to Rajya Sabha, we made him party general secretary. What more respect did he want. What Verma and Congress are doing, it is wrong and against political decorum,” Chaudhary charged.

Verma’s move has come amid flaring tensions between the Congress and the SP over the collapse of their seat-sharing arrangement for the MP polls, with both the INDIA allies separately contesting it. This also triggered a war of words between Akhilesh and UP Congress president Ajay Rai, with the SP chief

calling the latter a “chirkut” (small-time) leader while criticising the Congress’s MP heavyweights, Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.

Rai asked the SP to withdraw from the MP fray as it did not have a base there, adding that the party should rally behind the Congress if it wants to fight the ruling BJP.