Volunteers extend traditional invite to voters in Chhattisgarh's red zone

Volunteers inviting voters with betel-nut, rice-turmeric to exercise their franchise

Even as the poll panel is deeply concerned with the security and voters to turn out in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-infested areas, government volunteers have launched a unique campaign of extending a traditional invite to voters for pulling them to polling booths.

The left-wing extremists (LWEs) have sway in 13 assembly constituencies of state’s 90. Of the five states going to the polls this year, Chhattisgarh is the only one where elections will be held in two phases for the security reasons. The first phase of polling on November 12 will cover 18 constituencies including the 13 insurgency-hit seats.

With the election fever gripping Bastar, otherwise infamous across the globe for deadly Naxal violence, rebels are gearing up to stall the democratic process. They have started threatening people not to cast their votes and boycott the election. The extremists have circulated pamphlets and have displayed their message on walls in the interior areas of Bastar.

The state electoral officer on Wednesday held a high-level meeting to discuss the latest situation and security arrangements in Bastar. Besides throwing a thick security blanket in the entire region, the authorities have stepped-in with innovations to convince the voters to exercise their franchise without fear.

“The volunteers of Anganwadi are visiting each house in the interior areas and inviting people with tradition betel-nut and rice-turmeric,” Bastar district administration spokesperson told Business Standard. This is for the first time that such an experiment is being conducted in the red zone to increase the polling percentage.

Under the Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), yatra is also taken out in the interior areas to educate the illiterate tribals. The yatra was taken out in 2013 state polls that evoked a positive response. The awareness campaign increased the turn out by about 5 per cent as compared to 2008 state elections. The region recorded an average polling of 65 per cent in 2013.