Leaders of BJP and RLD garlanded the statue of Chaudhary Charan Singh in Lucknow.
The BJP's attempts to celebrate the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh has not gone down well with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the party headed by his son Ajit Singh.
On the occasion of Charan Singh's birthday today, the BJP organised celebrations in several districts of Western Uttar Pradesh.
In Amroha, the BJP had organised a massive farmer's rally on December 21 to honour Charan Singh, and the event was attended by Union Minister Sanjeev Baliyan.
The BJP and the RLD have shared an uneasy relationship since Ajit Singh, a minister in the earlier UPA government, was asked to vacate the government bungalow allotted to him, after losing his Lok Sabha seat.
While Mr Singh paid homage to his father at Kisan Ghat in Delhi, the state unit of the party raised doubts over the BJP's actual intentions.
President of RLD's state unit Munna Singh Chauhan told NDTV, "The BJP has no right to speak of Chaudhary Sahab. At Kisan Ghat, every year, the Urban Development Ministry used to mark December 23 and May 29 (Chaudhary Charan Singh's death anniversary), but this new government has stopped that. So how is the party talking about Chaudhary Sahab?"
Earlier, in Lucknow, the tension between the two parties was palpable when members of both parties jostled to garland the leader's statue at the Vidhan Sabha.
But the BJP has denied that the events to mark Charan Singh's birth anniversary have anything to do with vote-bank politics, and says they are only following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's lead in celebrating national icons.
Vijay Pathak, BJP spokesperson, said, "Those who have a narrow mind will think this. Great leaders don't belong to any party".
This is not the first time the BJP is being accused of trying to hijack political legacies of leaders from other parties. In November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated a cleanliness week in schools across the country to mark Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday on November 14, causing much heartburn in the Congress.