BJP criticises Akhilesh Yadav for equating Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel with Muhammad Ali Jinnah

BJP leaders said considering Sardar Patel and Jinnah as equals on the birth anniversary of Patel was an insult to the person who fought for the unity of the country.

"Akhilesh Yadav has equated a destructive person like Jinnah, who was responsible for the division of the country with a constructive personality like Patel," said BJP leader, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, while talking to UNI Monday.

He said the statement itself shows the mentality of the SP leader and people of the state will give him a befitting reply in the assembly polls.

Uttar Pradesh's BJP president Swantra Deo Singh in a tweet also questioned why Akhilesh Yadav had raised the name of Jinnah on the birth anniversary of Patel.

"There is some mischief behind this statement," he said.

On Sunday evening during his second phase of the Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra at Hardoi, SP president Akhilesh Yadav categorically said: "Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah studied in the same institute. They became barristers and fought for India's freedom. It was Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who imposed a ban on an ideology (RSS)."

BJP leaders say they follow in the footprints of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel but today farmers are in distress and their income has not doubled as promised, the SP leader said.

Law and order situation is at its worst in the state of UP, hence, the people of UP have decided to throw the BJP out of power, he added.

Speaking against the Congress, Yadav said: "Investigation of ED and CBI that is going on against his family and other leaders is because of Congress only. There is no difference between the BJP and Congress. Congress is BJP and BJP is Congress."