Chhattisgarh polls: In shadow of guns, poll staff head for booths

After spending the night in a two-room school without bedding, polling team of 12 government officials left for Koleng village in Darbha block of south Bastar under a security blanket of 200 battle-ready CRPF personnel from the CRPF battalion headquarters situated in Netnar on Sunday afternoon.

Equipped with the latest GPS equipment and lethal weapons, they chose to complete the 20-odd kilometre-long journey on foot via a thick jungle instead of travelling in protected vehicles through the serpentine mud track dissecting through Kanganer reserve forest.

Such is the threat of Maoist retribution that nobody except senior CRPF and election officials knew about the decision to walk through the forest.

“We decided to send them on foot in secret as the threat of IED blast and straight encounter with Maoists looms large on the mud track,” a senior CRPF official said.

When dna checked at 8.30 pm, the polling party was yet to reach their destination.

Travelling through the mud track on way to Darbha, dna found several leaflets warning villagers to boycott elections and poll parties not to undertake the poll process.

Given the boycott call by Maoists, not a single vote may get polled on Monday in several villages in remote south Bastar but the poll officials have a job to complete for democracy to succeed that Maoists call a farce.

The shadow of gun looms large in hundreds of villages of Jagdalpur, Kondagaon, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur, Konta, Bastar, Narayanpur, Antagarh and Bhanupratappur assembly constituencies where the Election Commission has deployed over 23,000 personnel strong central forces in addition to equally strong central forces.

A top ranking police official in Bastar said the state police along with large presence of paramilitary forces, almost double than the last time, are trying to do their best to nullify the Maoist threat but the vastness of the region is a hindrance in ensuring absolute free polls.