By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress Wednesday sought to dismiss the reported rift between union minister Beni Prasad Verma and MP P.L. Punia, both from Uttar Pradesh, was “natural, internal pangs” in a party heading for victory in the state assembly elections.
“This kind of pangs are natural in a party which is all set to come to power,” spokesman Rashid Alvi said at a press conference here while desribing the reports of rift as “exaggerated”.
Verma is reported to have described Punia, who originally hails from Punjab, as an “outsider”.
“Punia is not a outsider… that way, all of us in India belong to one state or another,” Alvi said.
Punia represents the Barabanki Lok Sabha constituency, while Verma is the MP from Gonda.
Verma, a one-time close aide of Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, had left his party to join the Congress, while Punia was an Indian Administrative Service officer and principal secretary to Mayawati during her earlier chief ministerial tenure.