RAIPUR: A BJP convoy was attacked by Naxals in Dantewada district on Tuesday.The incident occurred at Shyamagiri hills when the MLA’s convoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area.Bhima Mandavi had been on campaigning when his convoy was targeted. Photographs indicated that the Maoists set off a blast through an Improvised Explosive Device.
BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi killed in naxal attack in Dantewada, confirmed P Sundar Raj, DIG-Anti-Naxal Operation.A high level meeting has been called by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
Chhattisgarh police and CRPF have reached the spot. Security has been heightened and the area has been cordoned off. Dantewada falls in the Bastar Lok Sabha seat which will go to polls in the first phase on April 11.
The Bastar region has 12 MLAs, of which Mandavi was the lone BJP legislator. The 11 other MLAs are from the Congress. The attack is being seen as a clear call by the Naxals to boycott the Lok Sabha polls which are scheduled to be held in three phases in Chhattisgarh.
On May 25 2013, the naxalites ambushed a Congress convoy in Bastar in which senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and former Union Minister V C Shukla were killed. In the attack a total of 27 persons were killed.