Zee Media Bureau

Hyderabad: Lagadapati Rajagopal grabbed headlines on Thursday for using pepper spray in the Lok Sabha and turning Parliament into a house of shame.

According to DNA, TV channels beamed paid ads of Lagadapati and hailed him as `Andhra`s Bhagat Singh` and `Alluri Seetharamaraju (the tribal crusader against British).

Rajagopal - an Andhra Pradesh MP opposed to Telangana and one of the six MPs expelled from the Congress this week - was assaulted by fellow parliamentarians and taken out of the house by marshals after he sprayed the pungent pepper at startled parliamentarians to vent his anger over the decision to carve out Telangana state.

Rajagopal`s frenzy sent scores of MPs and Lok Sabha officials -- and journalists in the media gallery -- running for cover, coughing violently and with a burning sensation in their eyes.

A pungent odour enveloped the house, adding to the chaos caused by the unending sloganeering and disruptions since morning yesterday.

Born in 1964, he holds a degree of bachelor of technology in mechanical engineering from the private VR Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijayawada.

Notably, this was not the first time that the Congress MP from Vijayawada had resorted to unwonted ways to put forward his point.

In 2010, when the Telangana Rashtra Samiti had threatened not to allow Rajagopal to enter Hyderabad, the chairman of the Lanco group of companies reached the Andhra Pradesh capital by an overnight bus and got himself admitted to a hospital.

According to a news daily, Rajagopal has been known for being volatile since his college days.

Rajagopal is one of the richest MPs in the current Lok Sabha and joined active politics in the 2004 polls when he contested from Vijayawada.