Bhopal, Apr 14 (IANS): Senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh Janardan Mishra stirred a controversy when he said that slapping a district collector or commissioner establishes one as a political leader at least for a year or two.

The Rewa MP was addressing a gathering of the party leaders and workers in his constituency and advising them on ways to come into prominence as a politician.

"Slapping district collector or commissioner will establish one as a political leader at least for the next one or two years," he said.

"During my era, people used to slap district collectors or commissioners to get noticed as politicians. We were aware that slapping senior officials will establish us as political leaders at least for the next one or two years and would not miss any opportunity to do so," Mishra said.

Notably, when Mishra made this controversial statement on Wednesday, MP Assembly Speaker Girish Gautam, Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Pratap Singh, former state cabinet minister Rajendra Shukla and several other BJP MLAs were present in the meeting.

However, it's not the first time that Mishra made a controversial statement. Earlier, he had made a strange statement about PM Modi's beard.

Taking a jibe at Mishra for his remark, State Congress vice-president(women wing) Kavita Pandey said, "Two times MP and senior BJP leader is making such a condemnable statement. Unfortunately, leaders like him who are supposed to show the right path to the youth are advising them to slap officers."