LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “last reshuffle before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections” has only made matters worse for the dispirited Congress party in Uttar Pradesh. Not only has the unexpected elevation of Beni Prasad Verma to Cabinet rank, rubbed senior Congressmen the wrong way, but the perceived neglect of Rajputs in the recent reshuffle has triggered a fresh round of unrest within this electorally significant caste bloc. Most Rajput leaders of the Congress blame general secretary Digvijaya Singh, in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, of advising the high command to not induct any Thakur MP from the state into the Union Cabinet in order to protect his own stature.
There are four prominent Rajput MPs from Uttar Pradesh—Sanjay Singh, Harshwardhan, Ratna Singh and Jagdambika Pal—who expected their induction into the Central Government soon after its formation in 2009. The Congress leadership chose R P N Singh and Beni Prasad Verma, both OBCs, Jitin Prasada and Rajiv Shukla, both Brahmins, Shri Prakash Jaiswal, a Vaishya, and Pradeep Jain, from the state’s 22 MPs, to make them ministers. “We were disappointed at that time for being neglected, and the way Verma was being given prominence by the party. But we had not lost hope,” says one Rajput MP of the Congress.
Thakurs, like Brahmins, play a dominant role in the state and most political parties, including the BJP and Samajwadi Party, have always projected Rajput leaders. But the Congress seems intent on sidelining them now. There is not a single Thakur office-bearer in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. Similarly, of 112 district chiefs, only nine are Rajputs, while there are 40 such Brahmin and 36 such Muslim leaders. “The Rajput community played a decisive role in the comeback of the Congress in 1980, after it was decimated completely in 1977. Since then, Rajputs have played an important role inside the Congress and outside, but the high command has neglected them. This will be reflected in the 2012 Assembly elections,” is how one Rajput leader sums it up.
Verma has now become the focus of this angst. “It is hardly two years since Verma joined the Congress, and he has become the most important Uttar Pradesh leader in the eyes of the high command,” says an office-bearer of the UPCC. “When he deserted the Samajwadi Party and constituted the Samajwadi Kranti Dal, both he and his son had suffered humiliating losses in the Assembly elections of 2007. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Verma won with a mere 17,000-vote margin,” he adds.
What then is behind Verma’s sunny fortunes? Congress insiders told The Sunday Standard that Digvijaya Singh wants his son-in-law Ratnakar Singh to become an MLA, and Verma has assured his victory from the Ramnagar Assembly constituency. “Digvijaya Singh is wooing Beni for his own interest,” says a senior leader.
Verma has a familial assignment as well: to ensure his son Rakesh Verma wins this time, from Dariyabad Assembly constituency, where he had lost his deposit in the 2007 elections. It is now being alleged that Verma is diverting steel ministry funds to nurse his son’s constituency. “We have already complained to the President, the Prime Minister and the Election Commission in this regard,” says Maulana Meraj Khan, SP district chief of Barabanki.
“Beni Prasad Verma has amassed great wealth in the last two years,” says Rajnath Sharma, a senior socialist leader, who has worked with former prime minister Chandra Shekhar and socialist icon George Fernandes. Sharma says he is collecting details and would soon take his complaint to the highest court in the land. Verma’s foes also won’t let anyone forget that before becoming Union minister, Verma was chairman of the Water Resources Committee, comprising, MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and had then appointed his daughter-in-law Renu Verma, as personal secretary.