Poster war in Chhattisgarh not only among parties but also between Naxals and Election Commission

As a pitched political battle unfolds between the ruling BJP and its main challenger Congress in Chhattisgarh, another war is literally on display between the Naxals and the election authorities on walls and hoardings across the state's Naxal-hit areas.

At some places, the huge banners put out by the Election Commission asking people to celebrate 'vote pandum', which in local Gondi language means 'festival of vote', actually outnumber and outsize the posters of various political parties too. Besides, many polling booths are being decorated like temples.

Officials said the posters have been put up to counter the Naxal propaganda asking people not to vote. The interiors of Dantewada and Sukma regions, which have been among the epicentres of Naxalism in the state, are full of posters put up by Naxals asking villagers to boycott the elections.

As part of efforts to increase voting, the administration and electoral officers are also offering goodies to people, including to local women self-help groups who have been promised waiver of five per cent of their debts for bringing physically disabled persons and voters in the periphery of the Naxal-affected areas to polling booths.

The poll panel is also planning to paint and colour all 232 polling stations in Sukma, considered a sensitive area, like a temple, its District Collector Jai Prakash Maurya said.

"There are 40 polling stations in the district which will be shifted by either helicopter, or by cycle or by foot and in the similar way agents will go to these booths," he said. To reach some of these stations, the poll agents will even have to cross a river.

During last assembly elections, 42 polling booths saw 0-10 per cent voting but the administration is trying to make voting day a festival this time, he said.

"The administration wants to make the villagers feel that they are not coming to polling booth but to a temple to celebrate a festival. We are also fighting a war for the sake of democracy," Maurya told PTI.

He is hopeful that polling will cross 65 per cent this time in the district, compared to 48 per cent in 2013 assembly polls.

Dantewada, another Naxal-affected area and an adjoining district to Sukma, has gone one step further and has set up three pooling stations in the hyper-sensitive Naxal area, which will witness voting for the first time in last 20 years.

"Telam, Tetam and Gautse--- these are three polling stations, which will witness voting for the first time in last 20 years,"