A video of senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath calling ‘item’ to a former woman colleague who switched over to the BJP has sparked a controversy. 

Kamal Nath was campaigning for bypolls scheduled for November 3 in 28 Madhya Pradesh Assembly seats when he made the remarks. 

Addressing a poll meeting in Dabra, where the Congress is up against Imarti Devi of BJP, Kamal Nath said his party candidate was a simple person unlike his opponent who is an ‘item’.

“Why should I take her name? You all know that person better than me. What an item,” Nath said amid cheers from the crowd which kept shouting ‘Imarti Devi’ as the remarks were being made.

Hitting back, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan took to Twitter to say “Imarti Devi is the daughter of a poor farmer” who rose to become a public servant after starting off as a village labourer. By referring to a woman as ‘item’, the Congress and its and leadership have revealed its “feudal mindset”, Chouhan wrote further. 

Meanwhile, a BJP delegation met Election Commission officials in Bhopal and complained against Kamal Nath for insulting women.

Devi and 21 other MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia had resigned from the Congress and the state Assembly in March this year and joined the BJP. 

Counting of votes of the bypolls will be held on November 10.