Suspected Naxal guerrillas gunned down the son of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart and four-time Member of Parliament (MP) from restive Bastar near Bhanpuri in Bastar district.
Tansen Kashyap, the victim, was also the President of Bhanpuri Janpad Panchayat. Another son of the MP was critically wounded in the attack that took place at about 11.30 am today near Gurghora village—about 270 km south of Chhattisgarh capital.
The MP, Bailram Kashyap is considered to be the father-figure of BJP in the tribal-predominated pocket of Bastar that is severely affected with the Naxal activities. Kashyap has been top in the hit-list of Naxalites.
Sources said that Kashyap’s three sons today morning went to offer prayers at the temple of their ancestral deity in Ghurguda village. Since the MP’s health condition did not permit, he did not accompany the sons as it was the annual ritual of the family to visit the temple on Ashtami during Navratri.
Besides Tansen, Dinesh and Kedar, who is minister of public health engineering (PHE) department in the Chhattisgarh government, completed the rituals.