Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu broke down on live television on Friday at a press conference he held shortly after staging a walkout of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
He referred to what he said were harsh and derogatory verbal attacks on his wife, Bhuvaneswari.
"For the last two-and-a-half years, I have been bearing the insults but remained calm. Today, they targeted even my wife. My wife never even came into politics. I always lived with honour and for honour. I can take it no more," a distressed Mr Naidu told reporters.
Earlier today, inside the state Assembly, there were sharp exchanges between the ruling YSR Congress and those in the opposition, including the TDP.
Mr Naidu said he was denied an opportunity to make a statement to defend his wife against the alleged personal remarks. According to reports, Speaker Tammineni Seetaram cut Mr Naidu's mic as he was speaking, and as ruling party MLAs called the ex-Chief Minister's remarks "drama".
"I have not been given an opportunity to even make a statement on the remarks made. So, I walk out of the Assembly. I will not return unless as Chief Minister... I have been insulted in the House," he said.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy, however, has hit back to say that it was his rival who made personal remarks, and that his party leaders had only reacted to certain remarks.
"Yes, Chandrababu Naidu's condition... that he is frustrated... is known not only to me but also everyone in the state. People have rejected him. Even in his own Kuppam constituency, he, unimaginably, faced people's rejection," the Chief Minister remarked.
Mr Reddy also said: "It was Chandrababu himself who spoke about my family (uncle, mother and sister) and there was no reference to his family from our side. The House records clearly prove that."
The ugly exchange erupted during a discussion on the farm sector.
In clips that have emerged Mr Naidu can be seen and heard saying: "Let us discuss everything... even the killing with (an) axe of an uncle and the betrayal of a mother."
Minister Alla Nani subsequently said Mr Naidu was "like a prostitute... who would do anything for power" and that the ex-Chief Minister was shedding "crocodile tears for sympathy".
Earlier this week Mr Naidu's TDP suffered a rout in civic polls in Chittoor district, which is his home turf.
The YSR Congress won 19 of 25 wards in Kuppam municipality - the first time the Telugu Desam Party has lost in this area. The defeat, predictably, has been seen as a major setback, particularly as the party failed to win other local body elections held just a few months ago.
Mr Naidu's declaration is not the first of its kind.
In 2012 the late former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa vowed not to return to the Assembly - after alleging humiliation and assault inside - unless she was elected to the top job.
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