Lucknow: A Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Pankaj Gupta from Uttar Pradesh was purportedly slapped by a farmer in a video shared online, which was shot 3 days ago.
In the 21 second clip, an old man comes close to the MLA and then is seen giving him, what seems to be, a slap on the face. A couple of men then quickly surround this old man - apparently questioning him for his action - and escort him as they all descend the stage.
AKhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party tweeted the video with a dig in Hindi- "At a public meeting organised by BJP MLA Pankaj Gupta, a farmer leader slapped the MLA. This slap was not for the MLA but for the BJP-led Yogi Adityanath government's poor policies, poor governance and autocracy."
The MLA later on cleared the air on the slap by the farmer, wherein the farmer said that he did not hit him, rather pat his cheek. "I did not hit him. I just came close to him and asked him something, addressing him as "Beta (son)".
"The fact-of-the-matter is that incident has just been twisted by the opposition for political mileage. They don't have any issues. They want to show that farmers are against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He (the old man) is like my father. He used to do this earlier too.", the BJP MLA clarified.
