A BJP MLA and four security personnel were killed in Chhattisgarh as Naxals blew up their vehicle Tuesday, two days before polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections is held in the state, police said.
MLA Bheema Mandavi and the four others were killed as Naxalstargeted a group of BJP leaders travelling in a convoy in Dantewada district,police said.
Visuals from the blast site showed the mangled remains ofthe vehicle and a gaping hole on the road on which it passed before Naxals blewit up.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has spoken to theDG anti-Naxal operations.
Former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh said, “I am incontact with Central ministers and spoke to PM Narendra Modi an hour ago. Iwill go to Dantewada and meet families of the deceased.”
The incident occurred at Shyamagiri hills when the MLA’sconvoy was heading towards Kuwakonda from Bacheli area, about 450 km from statecapital Raipur.
The BJP convoy was travelling between Kuakonta and Shyamgiriin Dantewada when it was targeted by the Naxals.
The Naxals blew up a vehicle in the convoy with an IED andopened fire at the occupants, police said.
Mandavi was killed in the attack, P Sundar Raj, DIGanti-Naxal operations, said. The four security personnel were also killed inthe attack, police said.
Security forces have been rushed to the area, they said.
TV channels flashed grisly images of body parts strewn alonga road bisecting a forest and a vehicle reduced to a heap of metal. Thepowerful blast left a big crater in the middle of the road.
In a statement, CRPF said, “Between Kuakonta andSyamgiri in Dantewada, the convoy of BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi came under an IEDattack today. The escort vehicle of State Police came under the blast. 5personnel of Chhattisgarh State Police are critically injured. Reinforcement ofCRPF has been rushed.”
Dantewada falls in the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, whichwill go to polls in the first phase on April 11.
For the elections on April 11, a security blanket of over80,000 personnel, and drones, has been deputed in and around the Naxal-infestedBastar region.
Four Border Security Force (BSF) personnel was killed whiletwo others injured in an encounter with Naxals in Kanker district on Thursday.
Ahead of the Assembly elections in May 2013 in the Naxal hotbed of Bastar, 27 people, including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and former Union minister V C Shukla, were killed in the ambush.