The people of Dantedwada have paid back the naxals though in a different coin. Shyamgiri under the Kuakonda police station, which witnessed a bloody naxals attack just two days before elections, recorded way more polling that other booths in the Bastar Lok Sabha seat that went to polls in the first phase on April 11.

The polling booth of Shyamgiri recorded 77% polling as against a mere 45 in the rest of the constituency. 

BJP MLA from Dantedwada Bhima Mandavi was attacked by naxals and killed in an IED blast last Tuesday when his convoy was targeted. While he was returning from election campaigning from Bacheli, the attack also left three security personnel and his driver dead.

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MyNation had reported on April 11 how the bereaved family of the deceased MLA did not buckle to the boycott calls by naxals and the threat of violence, but went ahead and cast their votes on Thursday, overcoming their grief.

Also read: Police on Dantewada attack: No lapse in intelligence

Only last week, naxals killed four Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and two others in an encounter in Kanker district. All the jawans were from the 114 battalion of the BSF deployed in Pakhanjur in Kanker. They were targeted with IEDs.

This is not the first time that naxals have launched attacks before elections. Just 10 days before the Assembly elections last year, naxals killed a cameraperson of DD News, Achyutanand Sahu, in an ambush in insurgency-hit Dantewada district.