RAIPUR: Ojaswi, wife of BJP legislator Bheema Mandavi who was killed in the Maoist attack at Dantewada, south Chhattisgarh, felt 'hurt and let-down' by the party when none from Mandavi’s family was invited to the swearing-in ceremony of PM Narendra Modi, who has started his second term.
What made Mandavi’s wife more “unhappy” was that their family was “ignored” while the victim relatives of BJP workers and supporters killed in political violence in West Bengal were invited to be part of the grand occasion in Delhi.
“My husband was also killed (by naxalites) while campaigning during the elections for the party, to make Modiji the prime minister. But I didn’t get any call or invitation to attend the oath-taking ceremony”, she said and was seen getting emotional that the party “showed no reminisce about her husband” who dedicated his life for the BJP in Dantewada — the Maoist stronghold of Bastar and lost his life while canvassing.
Barely two days before the first phase of polling in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP MLA Mandavi and four policemen were killed in a powerful IED blast triggered by the Maoists at Dantewada on April 9.
Later the rebels took responsibility for the assassination of Mandavi calling the killing as retaliation to avenge the deaths of their senior cadres at the hands of security forces in Dantewada, the assembly segment represented by the slain BJP MLA.
On the order of the union home ministry the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will probe into the killing of Chhattisgarh BJP MLA Bheema Mandavi from Dantewada.