On poll campaign, Chhattisgarh BJP leader murdered by Maoists, sixth murder of party man this year

A local police team along with security forces rushed to the spot immediately after the attack, police said.
The two-phase Assembly election in Chhattisgarh is scheduled to begin November 7.

Condemning the attack, senior BJP leader and former CM Raman Singh said, “With an intention to influence Vidhan Sabha elections and to scare our party, our partners are being targeted. They must understand that the BJP will not be intimidated and the people of Chhattisgarh are with us. Very soon, along with the Naxals, every criminal would be hung upside down and made to pay for their crimes.”

Dubey was the sixth BJP member to be killed this year.

Although Dubey was not among them, 24 party leaders in the Maoist-hit Bastar region, where Narayanpur is situated, were given ‘X’ category security after the previous attacks.

The first three killings — of BJP leaders or functionaries Neelkanth Kakem, Ramdhar Alami and Birjhu Taram — occurred in just a week, between February 5 and 11.

While Nath, the then divisional head of BJP’s Awapalli unit, was stabbed to death in Bijapur district, Sahu, 47, the deputy chief of the Narayanpur district unit, was shot dead at his home.

Alami, 43, a resident of Hitameta village, was killed while returning from Thulthuli, a village deep inside Abujhmad, where he had gone to conduct some religious rituals.

On October 20, BJP leader Birjhu Taram (53) was killed by unidentified assailants while he was on his way to a temple in Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district to attend Navratri celebrations.

On June 21, the body of Kaka Arjun, a 40-year-old former sarpanch in Bijapur’s Ilmidi Kasaram Para village, was found with injury marks.