Dehradun, Jun 8 (IANS): BJP leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat termed Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a 'patriot'.

He mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for 'merely' sharing the surname.

The BJP leader also targeted Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Speaking to reporters at the party's district headquarters in Ballia on Wednesday, Rawat said, "Gandhi ji was killed. That is a different issue. But as far as I have understood and read Godse, he too was a patriot. We do not agree with the killing of Gandhi ji."

Targeting the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Rawat said that merely having the Gandhi surname did not make Rahul Gandhi's ideology Gandhian.

Rawat said that making a show of wearing the 'janeu', does not change Rahul Gandhi's identity.

"He just talks," Rawat claimed, accusing Rahul of cashing in on Gandhi's name.

Reacting to Rahul's statement in the US, Rawat said: "His efforts will not help the party and soon it (Congress) will be a thing of the past."

The former CM said: "Rahul is speaking out of frustration, seeing the deteriorating condition of his party. He is speaking in mental stress. The public will not accept a person going through mental stress."

On the SP President Akhilesh Yadav's meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP leader said, "There is no bigger theatrical leader in this country than Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Akhilesh Yadav wants to learn theatrics from Kejriwal."

Rawat said that Yadav had plunged Uttar Pradesh into 'goonda raj' during his term as chief minister. "The SP recruited gangsters and made the mafia respectable. People would again reject SP," he claimed.