IndiGo and Air India have banned Telugu Desam Party legislator JC Diwakar Reddy from its flights, ANI reported on Thursday. This came hours after the TDP MP was said to have hurled abuse at IndiGo staff because he arrived late at the Visakhapatnam airport for a flight, and employees had said he was too late to get on the aircraft.

However, Reddy has denied all the allegations.

The Lok Sabha MP from Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh had reached the airport less than 45 minutes before Indigo flight 6E 608 was to take off. When told that check-in for the flight was closed, he had thrown a tantrum. Reports said that the TDP politician became abusive when denied a ticket. He had entered the ticketing corner of IndiGo inside the airport and allegedly damaged some furniture and a printer.

Interestingly, Union Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had been in the VVIP lounge of the airport when the incident occurred. The MP had visited the lounge to seek the minister’s help, but Raju declined to interfere.

The MP was apparently later allowed to board the same flight he intended to take, which was thus delayed beyond its departure time of 8.10 pm.

This is not the first time Reddy has created trouble at an airport. Last October, Reddy had barged into the Air India office at Gnnavaram airport in Vijaywada and damaged furniture after he missed his flight, reported The Times of India.

Earlier this year, Shiv Sena MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra, Ravindra Gaikwad, was banned from flying by Air India and several private carriers, after he assaulted a 60-year-old Air India staffer for not providing a business class seat on a Pune-Delhi flight. After pressure from the Shiv Sena, the Central government stepped in asking Air India to lift the ban on Gaikwad.

The Aviation Ministry plans to unveil a “no fly list” by the end of June. Unruly passengers can be banned from flying for a minimum of three months under the new rules.