The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Friday sacked its leader Kundan Chandrawat, who had offered a Rs 1-crore bounty on the head of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (pictured above), reported ANI. He had, however, retracted his statement on Thursday night after the RSS distanced itself from the controversy the statement had triggered, PTI reported on Friday.

“I was pained on the issue of murders of Swayamsevaks and therefore made an emotional statement. I retract it [statement] and express my regret,” he said on Thursday night. “I also got some phone calls from Kerala in which an unidentified caller threatened to kill me.”

The spokesperson for the Madhya Pradesh unit of the outfit had made the announcement about the bounty early on Thursday at an RSS protest rally in Ujjain. “I have enough wealth to have the guts to make such an announcement,” he had said. “I have properties worth over Rs 1 crore. Whoever gets me Vijayan’s head, I will give away all my property to that person.” He had also claimed that as many as 300 Sangh workers had been killed in the state and the chief minister had not done anything about it.

His statement was strongly condemned by other political parties, including the RSS. Vijayan had dismissed Chandrawat’s statement, saying such threats would not stop him from travelling around.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had said, “By this the RSS has reconfirmed that it spearheads the politics of violence and terror as has been clear in Kerala in the recent months.” They had also demanded immediate action against him for making the remarks. “The silence of the governments is an endorsement that emboldens the RSS to issue such obnoxious threats,” they had said.

Chandrawat’s comments came in the backdrop of several cases of political violence involving workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party, RSS and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There have been at least nine political murders in Kerala since the Left Democratic Front government came to power in May 2016. Both the RSS and the CPI(M) have blamed each other for the bloodshed.

The latest of these political killings took place on February 12, when a BJP worker was hacked to death in Thrissur district. The BJP accused the CPI(M) of the murder. On January 18, 52-year-old Santosh was attacked by a group of unidentified men outside his home in Kannur district. Six CPI(M) workers were arrested in connection with the murder.