Lucknow:
A Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from the Pathardeva constituency in the Deorai district of Uttar Pradesh had a rather unusual welcome at the Deoria railway station. Shakir Ali, a third time MLA and a former SP minister mounted a horse at the railway station platform and was taken for a victory procession in the district by SP supporters.
Shakir Ali defeated the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) heavyweight and the state party president Surya Pratap Shahi in the assembly elections.
As a former minister, Mr Ali had been lobbying in Lucknow for a ministerial berth in the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet.
His party supporters, who had planned the welcome, also thrashed a man who they claimed was a pickpocket and had stolen the minister's wallet at the railway station.
A First Information Report has been registered against the MLA and his supporters for disrupting law and order at the railway station.