LUCKNOW: Former Union minister and Samajwadi Party founding member Beni Prasad Verma died here on Friday.
He was 79. The Rajya Sabha member was not keeping well for past few days and admitted to a private hospital in Lucknow, where he died around 7 pm, his son Rakesh Verma told PTI.
Verma was the telecom minister between 1996-1998 in then prime minister H D Deve Gowda's cabinet and was the steel minister in the Congress-led UPA-II government.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reached the hospital and condoled his death. Verma is survived by three sons and two daughters. The former Union minister's association with SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav spans over four decades.
In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Verma had floated his own political party, which failed to open account.
In 2009, Verma formally joined the Congress and contested the Lok Sabha election from Gonda seat, but lost.
The Kurmi leader quit the Congress and in 2016 rejoined the Samajwadi Party, which sent him to the Rajya Sabha.
UP Governor Anandi Ben Patel and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav condoled the leader's death.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed grief over the demise of veteran Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Verma.
"Anguished by the passing away of Shri Beni Prasad Verma. My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this sad hour. Om Shanti," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted quoting Modi.