A verbal duel between members of opposition and treasury benches was witnessed in the UP Assembly after leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary made a controversial remark on Labour and Employment Minister Swami Prasad Maurya on Friday.
The incident took place during Question Hour in the House when the Minister was replying to a question on allowance to unemployed youth in the state, put forth by Samajwadi Party members.
Maurya refused to entertain their demand and claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party government was doing everything to provide jobs to the youths. He even announced that youths, registered with employment exchanges, would be given priority in those jobs which were outsourced in government department.
The controversy started when the labour minister disclosed that during the present regime, 2.81 lakh youths registered with the employment exchange were given jobs as compared to merely 1.80 lakh during the previous Samajwadi Party regime.
Annoyed with Maurya’s reply, Chaudhary made a personal attack saying, ‘’A thief always sees others as thieves.’’ He did not stop there and went to the extent of saying that a political turncoat was the most corrupt person.”
Formerly with the Bahujan Samaj Party, Maurya was leader of opposition during the previous SP regime but he joined the BJP before 2017 Assembly polls.
Chaudhary’s statement irked the treasury bench and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna alleged that the previous SP regime gave orders to release terrorists and raked up corruption in UP Public Service Commission (UPPSC). He also demanded that the derogatory remark of the leader of opposition be removed from the records.
After the exchange, the House witnessed noisy scenes with both sides trading charges and seeking apology from each other 
Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit had to intervene to defuse the situation.