Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sparked controversy after he was accused of “plagiarism”, over a poem he shared on Twitter last month when his father-in-law had died, reported NDTV.

After Chouhan’s father-in-law Ghanshyam Das Masani died on November 18, he took to Twitter to share a few lines of a Hindi poem titled – “Bauji” (Respected Father), saying that it was written by his wife Sadhna Singh.

However on Monday, Bhumika Birthare, who is a Madhya-Pradesh based writer and branding expert claimed that the poem is written by her. Tagging Chouhan in her Tweet, she said, “I am like your niece, what will you get by stealing my poem. This poem was written by me. Hope you will not violate my rights as ‘Mama” is known for protecting the rights.” 

In a series of tweets, where she also tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhirthare added, “Kindly give the credit to me sir. The poem is written by me and its title is “Daddy” and not “Baauji”. Don’t do injustice to my feelings for my father.”

Bhitare told NDTV, “I wrote what I went through as I performed the last rites of my father. I used my phone’s notepad to write, and the date and time was mentioned. I also shared it on my family WhatsApp group.”

Criticising the Madhya Pradesh CM, Congress leader Arun Yadav said in a tweet, “The BJP is an expert in changing names. Earlier, they used to change the name of the schemes introduced by the Congress regime, but now Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is showing off a poem written by somebody else as that of his wife’s.”