Naxals worried over impressive voter turnout in Chhattisgarh

Meetings are being held in areas that witnessed huge participation of people

The unprecedented voter turnout in Lok Sabha polls in insurgency-hit south Chhattisgarh has apparently upset the Naxals, who are holding meetings to express disappointment over participation of tribals in the electoral process, according to Intelligence inputs.

Some key leaders of outlawed CPI(Maoist) in Dandakaranya region recently held meetings in areas where they found huge participation of people in polling inspite of their poll boycott call and asked villagers about it, IB sources said.

"In some pockets of Bastar, Dantewada, Kondagaon and Narayanpur, Naxal leaders reportedly held meetings with villagers recently after the Lok Sabha election in Bastar constituency," a senior state IB official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

"However, police couldn't go deep enough to check the reason behind their meetings at several places. As per the informers, the Naxals were enquiring how voting was recorded high in the region despite their intense poll boycott call," the official said.

The two worst Maoist-hit Lok Sabha seats - Bastar and Kanker - recorded 59.40% and 70.29% voting respectively in the last month's three-phased Parliamentary polls in the state. Bastar went to polls on April 10 while voting took place in Kanker on April 17.

In the 2009 general elections, Bastar and Kanker seats had witnessed voter turnout of 47.33 and 57.20% respectively.

Also, over 70% voters exercised their franchise in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas of the state during last year's Assembly polls.

According to the informers, Naxals were asking the tribals why they took part in election.