New Delhi | Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday paid tributes to Bharatiya Jana Sangh's founding president Syama Prasad Mookerjee on his death anniversary, saying his invaluable contribution in nation-building will always be remembered with reverence.

Modi said Mookerjee displayed incomparable courage and strength to maintain the country's integrity.

A former Hindu Mahasabha leader who was included in the first Cabinet headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Mookerjee quit the government in 1950 and reached out to the RSS to launch a party dedicated to the cause of nationalism and fighting policies of the Congress.

He founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1951.

An MP, he died in custody in Jammu and Kashmir in 1953 after he was arrested for entering the state without permit, an official requirement he was fiercely opposed to and considered an impediment to the region's full integration with the country