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