New Delhi: Former Union Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Verma passed away in Lucknow on Friday (March 27), following a prolonged illness. He was 79. The cremation of the veteran Samajwadi leader will take place on Saturday in Barabanki which is his hometown.


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"The demise of senior Samajwadi Party leader, Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Minister Respected Beni Prasad Verma Ji and beloved `Babu Ji` of all of us is an irreparable loss. Condolences to the bereaved family! Centenary greetings and tearful tributes," Samajwadi Party tweeted.


Beni Prasad Varma was the tallest Kurmi leader in Uttar Pradesh and also a close friend of Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. For a long time, he served as the Minister of Public Works Department in the Uttar Pradesh government.


Born on February 11, 1941, in Sirauli in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, Beni Verma was a founding member of the Samajwadi Party. Verma was a Lok Sabha member from 1996 to 2014. 


He also served as a minister in Deve Gowda and IK Gujral Cabinets. In 2009, he joined the Congress and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Gonda constituency in Uttar Pradesh and became the steel minister in the Manmohan Singh government.


He, however, returned to the Samajwadi Party in 2016 and became a Rajya Sabha member.


Though he had distanced himself from active party politics after Akhilesh Yadav took over the reins of the Samajwadi Party in 2017, he remained a much sought-after leader by the party`s rank and file.