Maoists gun down BJP leader in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR - A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was shot dead by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s restive Dantewada district, a police official said.

Budra Sodi, a former Dantewada district BJP president, was gunned down by Maoists in Kerlapal village, 450 km from here, where he had gone to attend a wedding, police said.

“The Maoists struck at the village at about 4 p.m. and gunned down the BJP leader. Sodi died on the spot itself,” Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra said.

Sodi had contested the assembly polls in 2008 as the BJP candidate from Konta and lost to the Congress nominee by a narrow margin. The BJP formed the government in the state after the polls.

Dantewada district is a stronghold of the Leftwing rebels. On April 6, the Maoists massacred 76 security personnel in the region in one of the worst attacks on the security forces by the rebels since the insurgency began four decades ago.