Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dec 1 (IANS): Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister has received 12 consecutive death-threat messages on his phone, officials said here on Friday.

A prominent OBC leader, Bhujbal has earned the wrath of the Maratha community for his strong opposition to giving them quotas from the existing OBC reservation.

NCP (Ajit Pawar) group leader Manoj Ghodake has lodged a complaint with the Pundalik Nagar Police Station in this city famed for the Ajanta-Ellora Cave temples.

An aide in Nashik said the police were investigating the matter, adding the Minister was going ahead with his planned tour schedules.

Officials said that a person named Saudagar Satnak has allegedly sent out the dozen messages one after the other from his mobile number, threatening to eliminate Bhujbal for his recent utterances, and efforts were on by police to track him.

The Minister has been getting death threats regularly over the past few weeks after the Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil and other Maratha groups launched their quota agitation in August.

Considered as the ‘messiah of the OBCs’ Bhujbal, 76, is currently on a tour of some areas ravaged by the recent unseasonal rains/hailstorms, and was facing massive protests in different villages for his anti-Maratha stance, his motorcade was blocked and locals carried out purification of roads with cow-urine after he departed.

As a precaution, the Maharashtra and Mumbai Police have increased the personal security cover and beefed up the security outside Bhujbal’s home and offices in Mumbai and Nashik.