Maoists call for boycotting panchayat elections in Chhattisgarh
RAIPUR: Citing the upcoming panchayat polls as “fake” the outlawed CPI (Maoist) has fixed banners announcing a call to boycott it in Chhattisgarh.
The security forces during their search operation have recovered one such banner nailed by the south sub-zonal bureau of Maoists in some remote interior areas of strife-torn Bastar.
“The political party leaders are not the people’s representatives. Here in the political bazar there remains horse-trading business”, stated the message in the seized banner.
A 3-tier panchayat elections will be held in three-phase on January 28 and 31 and February 3.
The panchayat elections would elect 400 district panchayat members, 2979 janpad panchayat members, 11664 sarpanch and 160725 panch.
There are 29525 polling centres, 1520 clusters and over 1.44 crore voters who will exercise their right to vote during the panchayat polls.
In the span of one year after the formation of the new Congress government in Chhattisgarh, this is the third occasion when the model code of conduct has been enforced in the state.
The Chhattisgarh police though have not ruled out the possibility of Maoist supporters or sympathisers likely to contest in the forthcoming panchayat polls in the conflict zone of Bastar.
“We get some inputs and indications through the surrendered Maoist cadres and the local intelligence inputs but unless we get some solid evidence its difficult to initiate action against such candidates”, stated a senior police officer based in Bastar.