Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) candidate from Hoshiarpur constituency in Punjab, Bhagwan Singh Chauhan, on Tuesday declared a reward of one crore rupees for beheading Yoga guru Baba Ramdev over his alleged anti-Dalit remarks targeting Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
"I will pay a sum of one crore to the person who gets me the head of this (Ramdev) goon," said Chauhan.
Ramdev had commented that Rahul Gandhi had visited households of Dalit community for picnics and honeymoon.
The remark from Ramdev, who is an avid supporter of the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, was not only seen as a political attack on Rahul Gandhi but also as an insult to the women of Dalit community.
In the backdrop of the huge resentment and the furor that the remark created, the Election Commission of India issued revised guideline to stop these 'malicious' statements and said the perpetrators of such comments would not be allowed to hold campaigning programmes.
Two separate First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed against Ramdev, including one by police in Uttar Pradesh.