Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Akash Vijayvargiya on Monday kicked up a row over his thinly veiled threatening comment during a protest against the Kamal Nath-led government over crop losses and inflated power bills, PTI reported.

“We demand that all ministers, MLAs and other leaders of the Congress should ensure that farmers are compensated at the earliest for the crop loss caused by unseasonal rains,” the Indore legislator said. “Despite erratic electric supply in the state, people are getting inflated bills worth lakhs. This problem should be solved immediately or else you [government] know that we don’t roam around empty-handed.”

He claimed that the residents who got an electricity bill of Rs 200 during the previous BJP-led state government were now getting bills of thousands of rupees.

The BJP leader later clarified that he was talking about carrying a box of sweets in his hands, and claimed that the “anguished public” would remove the Congress government from power, News18 reported.

Congress state spokesperson Neelabh Mishra described Vijayvargiya’s remarks as a “threatening statement”. “[He] has clearly pointed towards the incident of thrashing a municipal corporation official with a cricket bat,” Mishra said.

In June, a video of Vijayvargiya, a first-time MLA from the Indore-3 Assembly seat, had gone viral on social media where he was seen assaulting Indore Municipal Corporation officer Dhirendra Singh Bais with a cricket bat. A case was registered against the legislator, who is the son of BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. After being released, he expressed no regret over the incident.

However, the BJP had issued a showcause notice to Akash Vijayvargiya, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reportedly expressed anger over the matter.

Congress spokesperson Narendra Singh Saluja on Monday said despite the warning from Modi, the BJP MLA was still making threatening statements openly as his party will not take action against him.


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