On Monday, a controversy erupted on the first day of winter session of the Madhya Pradesh assembly over the replacement of a portrait of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with that of Dr. BR Ambedkar in the House.

The picture is displayed behind the Speaker’s chair in the House.

The portrait of Mohandas Gandhi is still displayed on one side, while a replacement was made of Jawaharlal Nehru’s picture which was on the other side of the Speaker’s Chair.

Congress leaders objected to the change and demanded that Jawaharlal Nehru’s picture be restored.

“It was a conspiracy of the BJP to change history. We welcome the move to install the poster of BR Ambedkar but it is highly objectionable that they removed the picture of Nehru. Nehru was a freedom fighter and his contribution towards India can’t be ignored like that. We will raise a demand to put a poster of Nehru again in the House,” said Ajay Singh, senior Congress leader.

MP Legislative Assembly principal secretary AP Singh said, “The posters were in a bad shape so previous speaker Girish Gautam had taken a decision in July this year to replace them. It was his decision to put a poster of ‘Father of Indian Constitution’ BR Ambedkar in the House.”