YSRCP Tenali MLA slaps man in queue, faces retaliation

Tenali: The YSRCP MLA on Monday slapped a man waiting to cast his vote at a polling booth here when he was asked to stand in queue to cast his vote like any other voter. Enraged over this, the MLA menacingly went to the voter in queue and slapped him only to get it back as the voter retaliated.

The incident occurred at Tenali in Guntur district when the local YSRCP MLA Annabathuni Siva Kumar attempted to jump the queue and was questioned by one of the voters.

In a fit of rage, the legislator slapped the man, who did not hold himself back and returned the favour. Not pleased at the MLA being slapped, his supporters vented out their anger on the man.

“He (the YSRCP MLA) was going to vote and he jumped the queue so somebody (voter) objected,” a police official said. After the voter retaliated, the MLA’s supporters launched an indiscriminate attack on the voter, raining punches until police and other voters stepped in to stop the assault. TDP lodged a complaint with the Election Commission over the incident and the EC ordered that the MLA be prevented from moving around till polling was over. Meanwhile, police are in the process of filing FIRs over the incident.