A day after Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Chhagan Bhujbal received a death threat letter, he said on Saturday that the letter detailed how a ₹50 lakh contract was given to kill him.

He said, “I did receive a threat letter, it came to my office. It read that a contract of ₹50 lakh has been given to kill me. It has the number plates of some cars, some phone numbers, details of where the meetings were held and a few other things.”

Bhujbal added, “A lot of such threats have come in the past few months, and I have also received threat calls.”

Bhujbal’s office told news agency ANI that an unknown person sent a letter in Nashik to the NCP leader’s office informing him of a contract given to kill him.

The letter stated that the contract was given to five people for ₹50 lakh.

Bhujbal also said, “Since I have been in politics, I have received several threats over the years and have also been attacked. Like always, it has been forwarded to the police.”

Supporters of Bhujbal have requested increased security measures for him, reports said.

Nashik police are currently investigating the threatening letter and assessing whether additional security is warranted for the NCP leader, officials told ANI.

This threat emerged shortly after the Election Commission’s decision to allocate the NCP name and symbol to the faction led by Ajit Pawar, dealing a significant setback to the faction led by party founder Sharad Pawar.

Consequently, the Sharad Pawar faction was renamed on Wednesday as ‘Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar’.

The Election Commission’s decision followed over 10 hearings spanning more than six months. It was based on tests assessing the maintainability of the petition, including scrutiny of the party constitution’s aims and objectives, and the majority in both organizational and legislative wings.

Despite claims from both groups, the test of the legislative majority favoured the decision. The Commission noted that both factions operated outside the party constitution and organisational elections.