Maoists ask villagers to stay away from Chhattisgarh elections

Also tell govt teachers to refrain from poll duties a first phase of polls starts Nov11

In Dantewada, Naxalites have asked the adults in the Surnar village to leave their houses a day before the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections on November 11.

Some 50 miles away, a similar dictate exists for the villagers of Sauntar, Kumakoleng and Narra in Sukma district. People here have been asked to stay away from polling booths, polling parties and four-wheelers, which are an easy target of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Left-wing extremists have also asked the government teachers not to take up election duties.

A total of 18 Assembly seats in Dantewada, Rajnandgaon, Sukma, Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon and Bijapur are going for polls in the first phase on Monday. These districts are considered Maoist bastions. (SECURITY FORCES ON TENTERHOOKS FOR POLLS IN THE NAXAL BASTION)

Chhattisgarh has a total of 90 Assembly seats, of which the remaining 72 will poll in the second phase on November 19.

“We have received inputs of the presence of a large groups of armed Naxalite cadres along with their senior leaders including general secretary Mupalla Laxman Rao, who goes by the name of Ganapathy, on several occasions at Bijapur, Kanker and Narayanpur,” says a high-ranking government official, who did not want to be named. (ASSET ASSESSMENT)

“They have formed several teams with specific tasks to ambush security personnel, detain polling parties and loot the electronic voting machines. They would be looking to plant IEDs on polling routes and booths besides attacking the suspected police informers, political leaders and soft targets,” the official adds.

The Union government and the Elections Commission, which are closely monitoring the situation on the ground, have deployed a record 564 security companies (56,400 personnel) for just 18 Assembly seats in Naxal stronghold. On the other hand, for the second-phase, which involves 72 Assembly seats, a lesser number of security personnel, 524 security companies (52,400 personnel), will be deployed.

According to the official quoted above, the government has already issued a series of instructions to security forces, people on election duty and officials from the neighbouring state to prevent any untoward incident.