‘A first-class seat is my right’: MP Pragya Thakur told a passenger as she delayed Spicejet flight

“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.

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.