5 hired for Rs 50 lakh to kill me, claims Maha minister Bhujbal

Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party MLA Chhagan Bhujbal received a death threat on Friday.

An unknown person sent a letter to his office in Nashik informing him about a contract to kill him.

It was claimed in the letter that this contract has been given to five people for Rs 50 lakh, Chhagan Bhujbal's office stated.

"I did receive a threat letter which read that a contract of Rs 50 lakh has been given to kill me...It has been forwarded to the police...," Bhujbal said on Saturday.

His supporters have demanded additional security for him, it stated.

The Nashik police are investigating the letter.

They are also looking into whether there is a need to provide additional security to the NCP leader, Nasik police officials said.

The threat comes days after the Election Commission on Tuesday allotted the NCP name and symbol to the faction led by Ajit Pawar, a decision that came as a major blow to the faction led by party founder Sharad Pawar.

The Sharad Pawar faction got a new name 'Nationalist Congress Party -- Sharadchandra Pawar' on Wednesday.

The poll panel's decision was taken after more than 10 hearings spread over more than six months.

The Election Commission said that the decision followed the laid-out tests of maintainability of the petition, which included tests of aims and objectives of the party constitution, test of party constitution and tests of a majority both organizational and legislative.

The test of majority in the legislative wing found favour in this circumstance of the case, where both groups have been found to be working outside the party constitution and the organizational elections, the poll panel said.

The occupants of the post were primarily assessed to be appointed by self-nominated members of the electoral college and against the internal party democracy.

Serious inconsistencies in terms of timelines in the claim of the Sharad Pawar group, in support of their claim of having the organizational majority, resulted in unreliability of their claim, it said.