SP will not get even two LS seats, claims Beni

Alleging a "secret deal" between UP government and sugar millers which led to delay in starting of the crushing season, Union minister Beni Prasad Verma today said SP will not win more than two seats in Lok Sabha polls even if it gets full support of industrialists.

After making "Muslims cry" in Muzaffarnagar, the government is now making farmers shed tears in the region, the Union steel minister told newspersons here.

On Narendra Modi's projection as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, the minister said,"Modi will get tired of giving speeches from fake Red Fort as the real Red Fort is reserved for Rahul Gandhi... On August 15, 2014 Rahul will unfurl the flag from the Red Fort".

"My former friend (Mulayam )is a claimant of prime minister's post... Industrialists cannot make anyone prime minister...It would be difficult to win even two seats. It is not an allegation but truth that delay in starting crushing season is a result of an understanding between the government and mills," he said.

Stressing that delay in starting of the crushing season would be beneficial for millers, Verma said that had the government had the will power and farmers' interest in mind it would have declared sugar price at Rs 300 per quintal.

To take up the issue of sugarcane growers, Verma said he would seek permission of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to organise a peaceful farmers' protest in Lucknow and invite him for it to "open the eyes of the government".

"Muzaffarnagar is not fully peaceful and now the government has ignited another fire on sugarcane issue," he said adding that after making Muslims cry, the government is now making farmers to shed tears.

To Mulayam's opposition to Women Reservation Bill, Verma said, "he will not get food at his home" and questioned why the SP was opposing reservation in promotions.