It is still a fortnight before results start pouring out of EVMs in Uttar Pradesh but two Union ministers have already started promoting themselves as chief ministerial candidates.
Union ministers Beni Prasad Verma and Sriprakash Jaiswal are now discreetly projecting themselves as chief ministerial candidates in case the Congress gets to form the next government in UP.
This self-projection by these two leaders has started causing considerable heartburn among the state leaders.
Beni Prasad Verma, Union minister for steel, started the exercise several months ago when he got a short ad film made on the achievements of the Steel Authority of India (Sail). The film focused more on him than on Sail and did not have even a fleeting appearance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Rival parties in the state also made loud protests at the manner in which the minister was spending money from his ministry on developmental projects in his son Rakesh Verma’s constituency in Barabanki district. The minister also wooed the media by doling out abundant ads to newspapers — big and small — highlighting the achievements of its “mantriji”.
Mr Beni Prasad Verma, who belongs to the Kurmi community, has been using his proximity to Mr Rahul Gandhi to promote his case for chief ministership. However, he is low on the acceptability meter — firstly, because of his mercurial behaviour and secondly, his relatively recent entry into the Congress. Mr Verma joined the Congress in 2009. Union minister for coal Sriprakash Jaiswal is another Union minister who is eyeing the chief minister’s post.
The minister, who belongs to the Vaishya community, has been trying very hard to communicate to 10 Janpath that he is the most acceptable leader in UP Congress — acceptable to party leaders and party cadres. However, Mr Jaiswal’s undoing has been his interactions with the media where he unwittingly exceeds his brief and gives his opinion on issues that do not concern him or his ministry — like he did on Thursday when he gave his statement on President’s Rule in UP.