Manoj Singh Mandavi

Mandavi was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the state of Madhya Pradesh in 1998. Following the creation of the state of Chhattisgarh by the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 Mandavi became a member of the new state's legislative assembly.^[4] He served as Minister of State for home and prisons in Ajit Jogi's government of Chhattisgarh between 2000 and 2003.^[5] Mandavi contested from the Bhanupratappur constituency for the first time in 2003 as an Indian National Congress (INC) candidate, but lost to BJP's Deo Lal Dugga by a margin of only 1379 votes.^[6] In the next legislative election of 2008, now contesting as an Independent candidate, he lost to BJP's Bramhanand by 15479 votes.^[6][7]

In 2013, Mandavi won in the Bhanupratappur constituency as an INC candidate with 64,837 votes, defeating BJP's Satish Latiya and securing 45.98% of the total vote share.^[7] He repeated this in the 2018 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly election with 72,520 votes, gaining 49.07% of the total vote share and defeating BJP's Deo Lal Dugga in the process.^[7][8]

On 30 November 2019, Mandavi filed nomination papers for the post of Deputy Speaker in the 4th Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly.^[9][10] He was elected to the post unanimously on 2 December 2019.^[11][12] He was succeeded by his wife Savitri Manoj Mandavi, who won the bye election after his death.^[13]

Mandavi married Savitri Manoj Mandavi on 21 February 1995, with whom he had two sons.^[3][2] They lived in Nathia Nawagaon in Charama tehsil of Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.^[14]

Mandavi fell ill in his home village of Nathia Nawagaon on 15 October 2022. He was taken to hospital in nearby Charama before being transferred to a hospital at Dhamtari where he died on 16 October, after suffering a heart attack.^[15][16][5] To mark Mandavi's death, the state government implemented a one-day period of mourning in Kanker district and the capital city of Raipur on 16 October 2022. Government-hosted entertainment was cancelled and the national flag was flown at half mast. Mandavi was to be buried in his village later that day.^[16]