GORAKHPUR, Nov. 1 -- Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday targeted the country's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru over his alleged failure to defend the revolutionaries sentenced to death by the British in the Chauri Chaura case, claiming that Madan Mohan Malaviya's legal intervention saved 151 of them from the gallows.

Invoking the sacrifices of the Chauri Chaura revolutionaries, Yogi said their contribution to India's freedom struggle should never be forgotten and questioned the response of the Congress leadership to the death sentences handed down to them.

He said following the February 4, 1922, Chauri Chaura incident, the British government had sentenced 172 people, including farmers, labourers and traders, to death. "Who...