Bhopal: A ruling Congress MLA of Madhya Pradesh has triggered an unsavoury row by threatening to burn alive controversial BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur for terming Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, a patriot.

Gobardhan Dangi, MLA from Biora in Rajgarh district, dared Thakur to set foot in his constituency, saying, “We will burn her alive”.

“We will not just burn her effigy… If she sets foot here, we will burn her alive,” the lawmaker said while staging a demonstration in Rajgarh late on Thursday in protest against the attempt to glorify Godse by Thakur.

Thakur had sparked a furore in Lok Sabha on Thursday when she termed Godse a patriot while intervening DMK MP A. Raja during a debate in the upper house. She, however, later denied her actions.

The 49-year-old saffron leader, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast in which six people were killed and more than 100 others injured, was also barred from campaigning during the last Lok Sabha elections by the Election Commission for stating that Mahar-ashtra anti-terrorist squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, who was martyred in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, was killed because of her curse.

In a related development, a Dangi community leader on Friday slammed the MLA, saying that it “amounted to breaching the traditions of the community”. “The Dangi society shuns violence, particularly against se-ers. We will call a meeting of our community leaders to discuss the issue and, if needed, summon the legislator to apologise,” the president of Dangi society H.L. Dangi said.