BJP criticises Akhilesh Yadav for equating Sardar Patel with Jinnah

Lucknow: The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Monday took on the Samajwadi Party after a statement was made by its leader Akhilesh Yadav equating Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel with Jinnah.

BJP leaders said equating Sardar Patel with Jinnah, on the birth anniversary of Sardar 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 UP BJP vice president Vijay Bahadur Pathak while talking to UNI on 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.

"Everyone knows that Jinnah was a destructive person while Sardar Patel was a constructive person," he further added.

UP 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 had categorically said that, "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)."

The SP president charged that 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 by the BJP. Law & order situation is at its worst in the state of UP. Hence people of UP have decided to throw the BJP out of power.

He also slammed the Congress saying, "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 them -- BJP and Congress. Congress is BJP and BJP is Congress." (UNI)