Mulayam Singh has lost his sense of shame, and is busy merry-making even as the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots suffer: Beni Prasad Verma

Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Thursday attacked his one-time associate and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh, accusing him of watching Bollywood actors dance even as people die of cold.

Talking to reporters at his residence in this Uttar Pradesh capital, Verma took a dig at the Saifai Mahotsava, organised in Mulayam Singh's ancestral village, Saifai, in Etawah district, where Bollywood stars Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Rakhi Sawant performed on Wednesday.

Verma claimed the SP chief had lost all shame and sense of morality.

"Mulayam Singh has lost even his sense of shame, and is busy merry-making even as the victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots suffer," the union minister said.

Many hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, displaced after the riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of the state in September last year have been living in temporary camps. Children have died in the camps of cold.

Verma on Thursday also accused the ministerial delegation from the state that went on what was billed as a study tour to observe parliamentary practices abroad of going away on a five-nation junket.

He said that in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the SP would be wiped out from the electoral map of the state. He also predicted that the Congress would win 50 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats, and party vice president Rahul Gandhi would be India's next prime minister.