Tulsiram Silawat quit Congress along with Jyotiraditya Scindia to join BJP (File)
A 19-year-old woman on Monday approached police in Indore alleging that vulgar comments were being made against her on social media, after she confronted Madhya Pradesh minister Tulsiram Silawat, a former Congress leader, about his defection to the BJP along with others which led to the collapse of the erstwhile Kamal Nath government in the state.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the Water Resources Minister was interacting with residents of some societies in Indore about their problems.
Mr Silawat had served as a minister in the previous Kamal Nath cabinet as well.
In her complaint to the police, the Indore resident has stated that some trolls raised questions about her character and made vulgar comments after she posted a video of the incident.
Senior police officer Indramani Patel confirmed the receipt of a complaint from the woman.
"Investigation is underway. No FIR has been registered yet," Indramani Patel said.
In the video of the incident, the woman can be heard asking Mr Silawat, "I want to ask you one thing. You were in the Congress earlier and suddenly joined the BJP. You caused the collapse of a good government. How did you feel?"
While Tulsiram Silawat looked uncomfortable, he can be heard saying that he is still sitting among the common people.
Even before Mr Silawat could complete, the woman says, "We talk about farmers. A few days ago your (leader) Jyotiraditya Scindia had tweeted that (during the tenure of the previous Kamal Nath government) the loan of many farmers was waived. Then suddenly he said that no loan of farmers has been waived".
When some participants of the meeting intervened, the woman can be heard saying she is also a voter.
Meanwhile, after lodging the complaint with police about the comments on social media, the woman told reporters that she had posed questions to the minister in her capacity as a voter.
"As soon as I posted a video of this incident on social media, some people used words like bar girl and prostitute," she told reporters.
"I am neither a journalist nor a Congress worker. I have no connection with any political party. I am just an activist and I just voiced my democratic rights. But since then, very cheap comments are being made about me," she said.
Tulsiram Silawat is considered to be close to Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose exit from the Congress along with 22 sitting MLAs led to collapse of the Kamal Nath government on March 20.
The BJP formed the government under Shivraj Singh Chouhan after the rebel MLAs joined the party.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)