West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Both Houses of Parliament condemned Thursday a “bounty” of Rs 11 lakh announced by a BJP youth wing leader on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s head. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar condemned the announcement in Lok Sabha and MoS Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi did so in Rajya Sabha, after Trinamool Congress leaders had raised the issue in either House, backed by other MPs including of the CPM.

Yogesh Varshney, 26, who had declare the bounty, has been booked in a case of criminal intimidation, said police in Aligarh, UP. Yogesh, a former general secretary of the BJP’s Aligarh Yuva Morcha, told The Indian Express the statement was his personal opinion and apologised. The BJP’s Aligarh Mahanagar president, Vivek Saraswat, said Yogesh holds no party post at present.

The police case followed a complaint by the Trinamool Congress’s Aligarh district president, Ram Bhul Upadhyay. Separately, a Trinamool councillor lodged a case in Kolkata’s Kalighat, where Mamata lives.

In Lok Sabha, Ananth Kumar said, “This is an insane statement… The BJP is a democratic party and Mamata Banerjee is an elected chief minister. She should be respected. Any such statement from any corner is strongly condemned.” Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said, “This is completely wrong. All sides must exercise restraint.”

Trinamool MP Saugata Roy had raised the matter, supported by Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav (RJD) and P Karunakaran (CPM) who also referred to a bounty declared by an RSS leader on the Kerala chief minister.

In Rajya Sabha, where Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) raised the issue, Naqvi promptly rose to condemn the incident and said the state government was free to take “appropriate legal action”. CPM member Tapan Kumar Sen, Congress member Digvijaya Singh and others joined the protest.

Kurien suggested Roy ask the government to initiate action. Roy said he would but added the person enjoys “political patronage”.

From Aligarh, Yogesh told The Indian Express he made the statement following police action on a rally in Birbhum. “My statement was out of provocation and I apologise for it. It was my personal opinion and the party has nothing to do with it,” he said.

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