In videos being circulated on social media, MP PWD minister Tulsiram Silawat and his supporters can be seen offering prayers in front of the tanker in Indore and posing in front of the vehicle for media photographs.

“When the tanker, which started from Jamnagar in Gujarat, reached Chandan Nagar Chowk on Saturday night, it was stopped for an hour by Silawat for puja paath to quench their thirst for media coverage. They repeated the act when the vehicle reached a filling station,” MP Congress spokesperson Neelabh Shukla alleged.

While the hospitals in Indore were battling against the oxygen shortage, the BJP leader and Minister Tulsi Silavat and the party’s city president Gaurab Ranadive welcomed the tanker at around 10 pm on Chandan Nagar’s Dhar road. During the photo ops, Ranadive while speaking to reporters said, “This medical oxygen tanker has come as a lifeline for the city. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had talked to Reliance Company regarding this, after which this tanker came, the people of Indore are grateful to him.”

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP and Congress on Sunday lashed out at each other after a video went viral of a state minister and his supporters breaking coconuts and a priest chanting prayers in front of a tanker transporting oxygen from neighbouring Gujarat.