Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday said that the Naxals have moved back after pressure from security forces. The CM’s statement comes a day after a Bharatiya Janata Party leader was murdered in insurgency-hit Narayanpur district on Saturday.
BJP's Narayanpur district unit vice president and the area's Assembly, Ratan Dubey was murdered at the Kaushalnagar village market while campaigning for Assembly elections on Saturday.
CM Baghel expressed condolences to the family members on Dubey’s demise and said that the Naxals have moved back after pressure from security forces.
“Due to the pressure from our force the Naxals have moved back...Some small incidents have been happening but the situation has improved..." he said.
As per eyewitnesses, Dubey was addressing a throng when two individuals emerged from the crowd and hit him on his head from behind.
“Dubey ran towards his car and tried to get inside but a few more persons surrounded him and attacked him with sharp edged weapons leading to his death on the spot. The incident led to chaos. BJP workers later rushed to the police station located around 5 kilometres away from the site,” Bastar Range IG Sundarraj P was quoted as saying by PTI.
Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Pushkar Sharma said enough protection is provided throughout the election campaign, but no information regarding Dubey's visit was supplied to the police.
Narayanpur is amid the 20 constituency seats that would undergo polls for the first phase of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly elections on November 7. The second phase of polling would take place on November 17 for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly while the votes will be counted on December 3.
Earlier in October, unidentified individuals shot and killed a BJP worker in a rural area of the insurgency-hit Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district near Rajnandgaon.