“A first-class seat is my right,” Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Thakur told an angry co-passenger on a SpiceJet aircraft on December 21. As she refused to move from where she insisted on sitting, holding back the plane for 45 minutes in the process, a passenger berated her. The exchange was captured on video by a passenger on the flight.

Thakur was travelling on a Delhi-Bhopal SpiceJet flight on Saturday when she was asked to move from her previously booked seat 1A to 2A/B. Her allotted seat was reportedly in the emergency row that does not allow passengers in wheelchairs. Thakur’s refusal to move caused the flight to be delayed for 45 minutes.

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The MP was later blamed to have been sitting on a dharna inside the flight, but she refuted the claim, saying that she has lodged a complaint at the Bhopal airport. The airlines released a statement on Sunday, detailing how Thakur refused to cooperate.

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