Keeping in mind the political situation, the Congress had fielded Deepak Karma, whose father Mahendra Karma, founder of the Salwa Judum (declared by the Supreme Court to be illegal and unconstitutional) and former leader of Opposition, was killed in the Jiram Valley (Bastar) Naxal attack on May 25 last year, to garner sympathy votes.
But this failed to make any impact on the BJP's victory margin.
In 2011, in the Bastar Lok Sabha bypoll, Dinesh Kashyap had defeated the Congress' Kawasi Lakhma by a margin of 85,000 votes and this time his victory margin crossed 1.24 lakh votes.
