Riding on Beni Prasad Verma legacy in Gonda, SP debutant Shreya braces for BJP’s Ayodhya challenge

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded 31-year-old Shreya Verma, the granddaughter of the party’s prominent Kurmi leader late Beni Prasad Verma, from the Gonda seat in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

One of the SP’s founding members, Beni Prasad was a former Union minister and five-time MP, who won his last Lok Sabha election in 2009 from Gonda adjoining his home turf Barabanki.

SP women wing national vice-president Shreya’s political journey has been closely linked to her grandfather’s legacy and the Mulayam Singh-founded party.

Although her name figured in the second list of the SP’s candidates released on February 19, Shreya had already launched her public outreach in Gonda several days earlier, with SP women wing chief Juhie Singh joining her campaign.

Shreya did her schooling at Welham Girl’s School in Uttarakhand and completed her graduation with Economics honours at Ramjas College in Delhi. She has been associated with various NGOs in the education sector.

Her mother Sudha Rani Verma, who runs a degree college in Barabanki, said that although Shreya had been actively involved in student politics, she had never contested any elections before. Sudha said, “Shreya assists me in the administrative work of the college.”

Shreya’s father Rakesh Kumar Verma is also an SP leader, who had been a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government during 2012-17. Rakesh Kumar lost the 2022 Assembly elections from Barabanki’s Kursi to the BJP’s Sakendra Pratap by just 520 votes.

Following in the footsteps of her grandfather and father, Shreya joined the SP over two years ago and has been actively participating in party activities since. “She played a vital role in my campaign in the last Assembly elections,” said