Now Akhilesh ally Rajbhar says no Partition if Jinnah was made PM

Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday said there would have been no Partition had Mohammed Ali Jinnah been made the first prime minister, adding to the row on a remark by Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav.

Rajbhar's poll ally Yadav had recently talked of Jinnah in the same breath as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as freedom fighters, triggering criticism from Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"Had Jinnah been made the first prime minister, the partition of the country would not have happened," Rajbhar told reporters in Varanasi.

On BJP leaders' criticism of Yadav's remark on Jinnah, Rajbhar suggested that former Prime former Deputy PM L K Advani too had similar views about Jinnah.

”Read Advaniji's views, read Atalji's views, read the views of country's other well-wishers on the prospect of Jinnah having been made the PM. Why did they praise him?”

Yadav had made the remark apparently equating Pakistan fonder Jinnah with Gandhi and Nehru while lavishing praise on Patel on his 146th birth anniversary on October 31, raising many eyebrows.

"Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammed Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle," he had said.

Yadav had also referred to the ban imposed on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by Patel, the then home minister, following the assassination of Gandhi in 1948, saying only he could do it.

Reacting to Yadav's statement on Jinnah, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi had said Jinnah was considered a villain in the country and those who are trying to use his name will not get any benefit.