Mahendra Karma was a person from Chhattisgarh, India. He was the leader of the opposition in the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha from 2008 to 2013 and belongs to the Congress party. In 2005, he organised the Salwa Judum movement against Naxalites (Maoists) in Chhattisgarh. The initiative was praised by the Chief Minister Raman Singh, but has been criticized as a "Vigilante militia" by pro-Naxalite groups and disapproved by Supreme Court. He was a Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Ajit Jogi cabinet since 2000 to 2004.. He was killed by naxalites on 25 May, 2013. He was leading a Parivartan Rally in Sukma when he was attacked.

Salwa Judum Movement 

Karma, an ethnic adivasi, formed the Salwa Judum, an anti-Naxalite movement led by local elites. Despite being an opposition party member, Karma aggressively lobbied in order to get bipartisan support for the Salwa Judum, and largely succeeded in 2005, when Salwa Judum was adopted by the state government and recruited as a corp of "Special Police Officers". They were given broad latitude in their actions. After the Supreme Court expressed disapproval of the Salwa Judum movement in 2008 and asked the state of Chhattisgarh to implement remedial measures mentioned in the National Human Rights Commission report which had detailed widespread human rights abuses committed by the Salwa Judum, the movement slowly started to disappear from the Chhattisgarh state.

On 8 November 2012, Karma survived an assassination attempt by Naxalite insurgents, when the landmine blast targeting his motorcade as it passed through a forest in Dantewada district failed to kill him. Karma escaped unscathed, while his driver and two security guards were injured.

On 25th May 2013, Mahendra Karma was assassinated in a Maoist attack in Darbha Near Jagdalpur district of Chhattisgarh.