Beni Prasad to Mulayam: 'First handle UP then dream of becoming PM'

Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Saturday said Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav should first handle the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh before dreaming of becoming the country's prime minister.

Referring to the recent violence in Muzaffarnagar, Verma charged the Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Government with fully cooperating in fanning the riots.

"Mulayam Singh is dreaming of becoming the prime minister of the nation but he cannot even handle Uttar Pradesh properly. Why would people vote him to destroy the country just like he did with his own state," he told media here today.

The opposition parties have consistently blamed the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh for failing to control the riots in the state, which claimed the lives of more than 62 people, and rendered about 40,000 people homeless.

Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on August 27, when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.

He further took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, and said that his rallies attract crowd in Uttar Pradesh because the SP and the BJP have a deep understanding since the time of Babri Masjid.

"Congress is a natural party. BJP is an artificial party, they only mislead the people. This is the difference between Congress and BJP. The reason for crowds in Narendra Modi's rally in Kanpur is that BJP and SP have an understanding, since Babri Masjid era," he said.

Verma charged Modi with misleading the nation by making false claims, and asked as to what had the latter done in Gujarat in the last six years.

"In six years, what big deal of work has Modi done?" he questioned.

Urging people to vote for the BJP, Modi said in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday, that his party would change the face of the country if given 60 months of service at the Centre in a way that the Congress has had 60 years of power and not been able to achieve anything progressive.