A Shiv Sena member of parliament (MP), Ravindra Gaikwad, has been banned from flying on five major Indian airlines after he reportedly hit an airline employee with a slipper, the BBC reported.

In an act of defiance, Gaikwad told members of the press that he "hit him 25 times with my sandal" for "arrogance" after failing to get a business class seat on an Air India flight.

Air India filed a complaint against the MP from Osmanabad, following which Gaikwad was banned on all flights operated by the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA).

Members of the FIA also include Go Air, Spice Jet, Jet Airways, and IndiGo. All member airlines are dominant players in India's domestic aviation industry.

Gaikwad was told that he could not fly business class on the Pune to Delhi flight because it was an all-economy flight, the report filed by Air India said. The matter worsened when the duty manager was called after the plane landed in Delhi and the MP refused to get off.

Speaking to the media Gaikwad said that he was not a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, but a Shiv Sena MP and would not tolerate any insult.

Shiv Sena is a junior coalition partner with the ruling BJP party in the Maharashtra state government.

So far, the MP has refused to apologise for attacking the 60-year-old Air India employee. The staff member told Asia News International that Gaikwad had broken his glasses in the attack.