Samajwadi Party Worker, Also Vegetable Vendor, Hires Bouncers To 'Guard' Tomatoes

In an apparent attempt to score political points, an SP worker, who is also a vegetable vendor, purportedly hired bouncers to "protect" the produce in his store amid record high prices of tomatoes across the country.

Ajay Fauji, who runs a grocery business in Lanka area of Varanasi, has deployed two bouncers, he says, to prevent buyers from getting aggressive while haggling the tomato prices.

Mr Fauji had earlier cut a tomato-shaped cake in Varanasi on the birthday of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

"I kept hearing about arguments over the tomato price among people. People at my shop too tried to haggle. So to put an end to the constant arguments, I decided to deploy bouncers in uniform at my cart," Fauji told PTI.

Mr Fauji's shop also has a placard mentioning the rising prices of commodities over the last "nine years," an apparent reference to the period the Narendra Modi-led government has been in power at the Centre.

Mr Fauji, who is selling tomatoes at Rs 140-160 per kg, has the bouncers deployed at his cart from 9 am to 5 pm.

He refused to reveal how much he hired them for. "No one will provide bouncers free of cost." Asked how keeping bouncers has helped him, he claimed that even though people are coming in same numbers, they are less aggressive about the pricing now.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too shared the image of a news clip relating to Mr Fauji and his bouncers, and tweeted, "The BJP should provide 'Z-Plus' security to tomatoes."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)