Escalating the on-going controversy on Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah's portrait, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Friday termed the former as an 'enemy of the nation'.


"Jinnah was an enemy of the nation. No one in the nation has ever had or ever will have a place for an enemy in their hearts," said Maurya.


The controversy surrounding Jinnah's poster triggered this week after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satish Gautam wrote a letter to Aligarh Muslim University's Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor, seeking an explanation for a portrait of Pakistan's founder hung in the Students' Union Office.


Earlier, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Minister Swami Prasad Maurya's lauded Jinnah saying that the contribution of the Pakistan's founder before partition cannot be ignored.


Responding to Swami Prasad's remark, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "That is an internal party matter, we will deal with it later."


Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also reacted on this controversy saying that the person who was behind the partition of India cannot be accorded respect.  The Chief Minister also sought a detailed report from the Aligarh Muslim University management and assured that he will look into the matter. -- PTI