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. 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.
