Who is Prathap Simha, at the centre of Parliament breach storm

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, December 13

Although Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla did not identify the MP on whose signatures two visitors entered the Lok Sabha public gallery and breached the house security on Wednesday, it was clear that the intruders had entered after getting signatures from BJP’s Mysore MP Prathap Simha.

Sources close to Simha said the MP knows accused Manoranjan D who hails from his constituency.

The MP did not know the second accused Sagar Sharma whom Manoranjan introduced as a friend, they added.

It is learnt that Simha’s office facilitated three passes for visitors’ entry to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and all three sought the entry saying they wanted to see the new Parliament.

While two people entered, the third, a woman, was sent back as she was carrying a child whose name was not on the facilitation papers given by Simha’s office.

It is learnt that Manoranjan often visited Simha’s office and the MP knew him.

Simha, 47, is a two term Lok Sabha MP from Mysore (elected in 2014 and 2019 with progressively better victory margins).

His parliamentary profile shows he is a journalist and an agriculturist and a former member of the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee.

Simha is a popular right wing columnist who writes in Kannada and has well followed columns.

He has authored Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biography titled “Narendra Modi: Yaaru Thuliyada” (Narendra Modi: The Untrodden Road) and was a surprise BJP pick to contest from the Mysore Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 general elections.

In 2012, the Karnataka police had arrested some youth in an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba plot to kill Prathap Simha, a Hindutva votary.