India: The election boycott campaign continues in Chhattisgarh and Telangana
We have previously reported on the upcoming elections in the federal states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The elections in Chhattisgarh will take place the 7th and the 17th of November, while the elections in Telangana are taking place on the 30th of November. The Communist Party of India (Maoist), denouncing the elections of the Old State, are carrying out a boycott campaign.
The election boycott has been called for through posters, banners and statements. In villages in the districts of Sukma, Narayanpur and Kanker, as well other regions in Chhattisgarh, there are reports of messages advocating for election boycott being painted on walls.
Fearing the electoral boycott, the old Indian State is reported to be deploying 1,700 companies of central security and state police forces, making up around 150.000 people, in the federal States which are holding elections.
A CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action; a paramilitary unit) soldier is reported have been injured by an IDE blast in the forests of Chintagufa and Tadmetla in Chhattisgarh during an operation to secure the area ahead of the elections. There will also be elections in Jharkhand starting from the 30th of November, and similarly, a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) officer is reported to have been injured in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district on the 24th of October during an operation to “secure” the area ahead of the visit of prime minister Modi. The officer was injured after stepping on an iron spike planted by Maoist forces in Haathiburu and Limsadih villages. In addition, they found 218 spikes planted on roads in the area.
The old State of India constantly claims that the People’s War in India is almost destroyed, but it clearly is not: in addition to these intensified operations trying to locate and destroy militants of the CPI(Maoist) in Jharkhand, in Chhattisgarh heavy security measures, a so-called “multilayered security blanket” consisting of State police and paramilitaries were put on place for the duration of the visit of Modi on the 2nd of November. Despite all these operations against the militants, only hours before Modi visited the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, the militants of CPI(Maoist) executed three police informants in the same district. The night before, another informant was executed in the Bijapur district. A statement warning the electoral officials of participating in the election farce and promoting electoral boycott issued by the CPI(Maoist) has also been distributed in the district.
