Bharat Rashtra Samithi MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy was on Monday stabbed by a person when the politician was campaigning in Surampalli village in Telangana’s Siddipet district, The Hindu reported.

Reddy was stabbed when he came out of a pastor’s house and was about to get into his car. The attacker, identified as C Raju, approached Reddy on the pretext of shaking hands and then stabbed him in the abdomen with a kitchen knife, the newspaper reported.

The lawmaker’s security personnel snatched the knife from Raju, who was thrashed by the party workers before the police rescued and apprehended him, and sent him to a hospital.

The two-time MP from the Medak Lok Sabha constituency is in stable condition and has been shifted to a private hospital in Secunderabad, The Indian Express reported.

The police are yet to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi has fielded Reddy from the Dubbaka Assembly seat for the November 30 state elections.

T Harish Rao, a Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader and a Telangana minister, said that he strongly condemns the assassination attempt on Reddy.

“There is no room for violence in democracy,” he said in a social media post. “The government and BRS party are taking this incident seriously.”