For Mahendra Karma's wife, the November 11 election is a battle to redeem the legacy of the 'Bastar Tiger' who founded the Salwa Judum and was considered a symbol of the tribals' fight back against Maoists before he was killed along with top Chhattisgarh Congress leaders in May.
Congress's Devti Karma won the bypoll for the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, by a margin of 11,192 votes, a poll official said.
Claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on a Congress convoy, Maoists on Tuesday said their main objective was to "punish" senior party leaders including Nand Kumar Patel and Mahendra Karma for their "anti-people" policies.
Of the 12 seats in Bastar, the Congress won eight. The BJP had secured 11 of these seats in 2008.
A total of 10 women candidates, one less than last time, have emerged victorious in Chhattisgarh Assembly polls where the saffron party is back in power for the third time.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
On May 25, 2013, Naxals ambushed the Congress leaders' convoy in Jiram valley of Bastar's Darbha region.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday scored a hat-trick of victories in the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, winning 49 of 90 seats, thwarting the Congress' bid to wrest power after a decade.
In a major breakthrough, Odisha Police have arrested two suspected Maoists who were accused of being involved in the May 25 deadly attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the attack.
Vidya Charan Shukla, a former union minister and Congress veteran from Chhattisgarh, died on Tuesday in a Gurgaon hospital after battling injuries sustained in a deadly naxal attack on a convoy of party leaders a fortnight ago.
Launching a blistering attack on Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh over law and order situation, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday reminded people of the May 25 Maoist ambush in Bastar that had wiped out almost the entire Congress leadership.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh for its failure to act against Maoists responsible for killing many Congress leaders in May.
Making a strong emotional pitch over the Maoist ambush on Congress leaders in May, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that former Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nand Kumar Patel was killed to stop him from becoming the chief minister and to silence the voice of the poor and the tribals.
The results, while bringing the Congress back to power in this state, also end the rule of the 66-year-old BJP stalwart, who has earned several monikers during his 15-year-long tenure -- Doctor saheb being a trained Ayurvedic medical practitioner, chaur wale baba for his popular rice scheme and the 'Mobile Wale Baba' for giving free smartphones to 50 lakh women and students.
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