India: Election boycott has serious effects in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh
Featured image: map of the federal state of Chhattisgarh within the old Indian State. Source: Britannica.
The electoral boycott campaign of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI (Maoist) continues with particular intensity in Chhattisgarh, and has expanded to another federal state. The CPI (Maoist) leads the People’s War against the old Indian State and has a great influence in the federal state of Chhattisgarh. We have previously reported on this boycott and actions in Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
After the elimination of several police informants, the Maoist guerrillas have attacked a new target from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ruling party of the old Indian State. In this occasion they have eliminated a BJP official, the vice-president of the party in the Narayanpur district, federal state of Chhattisgarh. This is the sixth BJP official who they have eliminated so far this year in Chhattisgarh.
The most recent boycott action was carried out in the Kanker district, also in the federal state of Chhattisgarh, today. There, the explosion of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) has injured two officers in charge of the electoral polls, and a paramilitary agent of the old Indian State. After these events, a new party, split from the Indian National Congress, Sarva Adi Dal, have decided to withdraw their candidacy for elections in Chhattisgarh, admitting that they have no resources to protect their candidates.
It is worth remembering that the Minister of Interior of the old Indian State, Amit Shah, declared before the start of the electoral period that the “Naxalite insurgency” had been descending greatly in recent years due to the BJP government. Also he added that if the population of Chhattisgarh want to get rid off it, it has to vote for the BJP, since they were the only ones who really eliminated the Maoists. But can be seen how even some BJP leaders have been eliminated in the districts with the biggest Maoist presence in Chhattisgarh, and that the Modi’s party cannot guarantee the protection of their own agents. Since last month three bodyguards were assigned to the leaders of the party in Bastar. Besides this around 60,000 police and paramilitaries have been deployed only in this district. But all this has been in vain.
In addition to these actions in Chhattisgarh and those that were previously in Telangana, actions have also been done in Madhya Pradesh.
The elections in this state will be on November 17, and the CPI (Maoist) has started its boycott in this territory. On the night of Thursday 2nd of November, a former local leader of the Bhakku Tola village, Balaghat district, was eliminated. The Maoists explained that this former local leader was a police informer. After eliminating it, leaflets were left in the place of action. After this action, the old Indian State has announced that it is reinforcing the security measures in the same district where the action occurred, and also in the districts of Mandla and Dundori. On the other hand, the voting schedules will be limited, and instead of being possible to vote until 6pm, it will be possible to do it just until the 3pm in several districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Thus it has been verified that the CPI (Maoist) has accompanied its speeches with practice, since it has not only attacked targets of a certain level as BJP leaders, but also has caused increases in safety deployment and troops, transfers of voting polls and time limitations to vote. Therefore, the boycott campaign of the Maoist guerrillas is affecting the normal development of the elections in several federal states of the old Indian State. But there is still a long way forward, since only the first part of the elections will take place tomorrow in Chhattisgarh, and later there are still several weeks ahead to continue reporting on this campaign and how it takes place in several areas of India.
