Beni's remarks against SP supremo 'unfortunate': Akhilesh

Lucknow, July 3: Terming the controversial remarks of Union minister Beni Prasad Verma against the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav as "unfortunate", Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in politics things should be said in a "respectable tone".

"Whatever I have read in the newspapers, in reality this should not be the level in the politics. In politics, things should be said in a respectable tone," Akhilesh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

"The words which have come are unfortunate," he said.

Akhilesh said that it was upto the people to decide that who will reach where and who will hoist the flag at the Red Fort. He added that the SP do not make such objectionable remarks against their political rivals. "We SP people do not behave in a wrong manner...not in the language or otherwise," he said.

Beni kicked up another controversy yesterday with his barbs at friend-turned foe Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying that the SP chief was not even fit to sweep the Prime Minister's residence, drawing instant rebuke from the Congress.

"Yadav wants to become Prime Minister. He should first try to get the job of a sweeper at the residence of the PM," 77-year Verma said at a programme in Faizabad. He prefaced his remark by alleging that the SP was a party based on "lies and fraud" and that it will be finished by the Congress.

Disapproving of Verma's remarks, Congress once again ticked him off for his remarks against Yadav, saying it was "regrettable and the party totally distances itself from that".

"I do not know whether he has said anything like this, but if he has done so, it is regrettable. Mulayam Singh Yadav is a big leader and has been in politics for a long time. Verma was an old friend of Yadav. The party totally distances itself from it. It has nothing to do with it," party spokesman Meem Afzal said in Delhi.

PTI