‘Act an attack on democracy, getting support from all’

Lucknow: BJP MLA from Lakhimpur Yogesh Verma, who was slapped and roughed up by District Bar Association president Avdhesh Singh and others on Monday said that the act was an attack on democracy and he is getting support from all quarters, including legislators from opposition parties.
Earlier in the day, Verma met UP assembly Speaker Satish Mahana in the presence of nearly three dozen MLAs, including those from the BJP and SP.The legislators issued a letter citing a "violation of privilege".
Talking to TOI, Verma said, "I am raising the issue before the authorities as a public representative. This is an attack on democracy. I am getting support from all quarters, including the SP."
After the attack, the incident attained political overtones with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav taking a jibe at BJP. "The real reason behind the insult of a BJP MLA is that before being a ruling party MLA, he was from ‘PDA'," Akhilesh posted on X. He said as far as MLA's election fraud is concerned, he would be doing so because "that is the only way his party knows how to win elections."
SP MP from Kheri, Utkarsh Verma, came out in support of the BJP MLA, saying that the attack on an elected representative in the presence of police was "highly condemnable." "The more worrisome part was that the police were not even registering an FIR. If this is the case with an MLA, one can imagine what would happen with commoners," Utkarsh said.