PLAQUE POLITICS OPERATION SHOE STRIKE

Clips from footage show Tripathi shoe-whipping MLA Rakesh Singh Baghel inside a PWD hall in Sant Kabir Nagar district and the latter slapping him, both mouthing profanities.

TT, 7 March 2019: A BJP parliamentarian on Wednesday rained blows with his shoe on an MLA who happened to be his party colleague in Uttar Pradesh for the omission of his name from a plaque. The MP, Sharad Tripathi, was lauded last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who himself has been on a project-launch spree in the run-up to elections, as "polite and full of wisdom". 

A description of what the footage shows: (The MP asks PWD executive engineer A.K. Dubey why the plaque fixed on a bridge under renovation does not bear his name.) 

MP: Is there any guideline (that a plaque shouldn't mention the local MP's name)? 

MLA (intervenes): Brother, ask me about this. 

MP: Are you an engineer? 

MLA: I got it (the plaque) fixed. 

MP: Are you an engineer? 

MLA: Who are you? 

MP: It's my fundamental right; I am an MP. 

MLA: Your fundamental right? Talk to me later…. 

MP: Why should I talk to you? 

MLA: Why wouldn't you? 

MP: Why should I talk to you? I'm talking to the engineer -- I am an MP. 

MLA: Is there the MLA's name (on the plaque, either)? (Ashutosh Tandon, state minister in charge of the eastern Uttar Pradesh district, intervenes.) 

Tandon: Please be silent, sansadji (MP). Vidhayakji (MLA), we'll talk about this later. 

MP (to MLA): Have you gone crazy? 

MLA: It's you who has gone crazy. 

MP: Why should I talk to you? I produce MLAs like you; do you understand? 

MLA: I'll beat you with shoes. 

MP: You mother…. (The MP stands up and pulls off his shoe and, as the person sitting between them slides his chair back, hits the MLA with it seven times.) 

Tandon: What's happening, brothers? (The MLA gets up, walks across to the MP and slaps him twice. A police officer separates them.) 

MLA (screaming): Is he an MP? Mother….

Reporting by Piyush Srivastava.