Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday said had Jyoti Basu been allowed to become the prime minister of the country, people would have seen a better India.
"I am sure the situation of the country would have been much better, if Jyoti Basu was allowed by his party to take up the job offered by the United Front in 1996," Yadav told reporters after visiting the ailing Marxist leader at a hospital in Kolkata.
Basu would have set an example for others to follow, if he had become the country's premier, he said.
Yadav claimed that Basu had lost by a single vote the CPI-M politburo election on the issue of allowing the veteran leader to become the prime minister of the country.
"It was an unfortunate decision by the CPI(M) politburo as Basu is a leader above party line," he said.