An Andhra Pradesh minister’s wife created a ruckus at the toll plaza in Telangana’s Nalgonda district on Hyderabad-Guntur highway on Friday evening over payment of a paltry fee of Rs 56, bringing traffic to a halt for some time.

P Venkata Kumari, wife of state civil supplies minister Prathipati Pulla Rao, who was travelling from Hyderabad to Guntur, picked up an argument with a toll plaza worker at Madgulapalli, when he stopped the vehicle and asked her to pay the toll fee of Rs 56.

A video of the minister’s wife shouting at the toll plaza staff and their strong retort to her went viral in the social media on Saturday.

Pulla Rao, who represented the Telugu Desam Party from Chilakaluripet assembly constituency in Guntur district, fought the assembly elections again on April 11. His fate, along with that of other ministers and MLAs, will be decided in another five days when the election results are declared.

The video shows an angry Kumari arguing with the toll plaza worker that she was wife of a minister and was entitled to a free passage at all toll booths. She even pointed out that there was a sticker on the vehicle stating that it belonged to the MLA and so, it cannot be stopped.

The toll plaza worker told her that the vehicle would get a free passage way only if the MLA travelled in it and not others who used the vehicle. Moreover, the validity of the “MLA” sticker had expired in December 2018 itself, he pointed out.

But Kumari continued to argue with him for some time, which led to traffic jam at the toll plaza. With the toll plaza telling her firmly that she had to pay the fee at any cost and refusing to open the boom barricade to clear the way, she had no option but to pay the amount.

The minister’s wife told local reporters in Guntur later that it was a bad experience for her. “The election results in Andhra Pradesh have yet been declared. My husband is still a minister and an MLA. How can the toll plaza staff obstruct his car?” she asked.

She said she had not faced such a situation in any of the toll plazas during the travel, though she frequently travelled in the same car between Guntur and Hyderabad.

Kumari is also an active TDP worker and campaigned for her husband extensively in Chilkaluripet during the recent elections.

First Published: May 18, 2019 15:38 IST