Mumbai, March 22 (IANS): The security agencies went into a tizzy after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary and Lok Sabha candidate from Raigad Sunil Tatkare received a purported death threat, official sources said here on Friday.

The anonymous threat letter, typed in Marathi and dated February 27, was received in the postal mail at his public relations office in Mhasla, Raigad on Friday after which a party leader Nazim Hasvare lodged a formal complaint with the local police.

The unsigned letter has named one Balasaheb Bhausaheb Satpute of Vadgaon-Tandli village in Ahmednagar district - who allegedly has a criminal background - and warns that some persons having previous enmity with Tatkare have conspired with him to eliminate the NCP leader.

The NCP has written to the district police to take serious cognizance of the letter and initiate steps to track down Satpute and book him, besides beefing up security for Tatkare during the poll campaign.

An aggressive and senior NCP leader, Tatkare, 64, has been a former Finance and Water Resources Minister and is now the party's national general secretary.

Last week, the NCP announced his candidature for the Raigad Lok Sabha seat, pitting him against Shiv Sena's strongman and Union Industry Minister Anant Geete, who had trounced him (Tatkare) by a wafer thin margin of around 2,000 votes in the 2014 parliament elections.