agar and Manoranjan D who jumped inside the Lok Sabha from the visitors' gallery on Wednesday in a huge security breach in Parliament had their passes from Pratap Simha, a BJP MP from Mysuru. When a Parliament member issues such a pass to individuals, they have to give an undertaking that they personally know the person. Pratap Simha has been drawing flak after the visitors' pass recovered from the intruders revealed his name. Though he did not issue any statement on his connection with the two intruders, he briefed the Lok Sabha Speaker that the father of one of them belonged to his constituency and sought a visitor's pass
Who is Pratap Simha?
1. 47-year-old BJP MP Pratap Simha represents the Mysore-Kodagu constituency in the Lok Sabha. He is a popular BJP leader in Mysuru and won both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
2. The journalist-turned-politician made his political debut in the 2014 election before which he was working with Kannada Prabha.
3. In 2015, Pratap Simha was appointed as a Press Council of India member.
4. A staunch proponent of Hindutva, Pratap Simha was against the government's decision to celebrate Tipu Sultan's birthday as he said Tipu Sultan can only be the role model for the Islamists.
5. Early this year, Pratap Simha drew the ire of animal lovers as he said the dog lovers would understand the menace of stray dogs once their children are bitten. Stray dogs should be eliminated without any compassion, he said. "We are unable to take any action because of animal lovers. They realise the problem when stray dogs bite their children. Feeding stray dogs will not bring any good and it is not as big a social service as they try to project it as," the MP said.