New actions for the election boycott in India

Featured image: Map of the districts of Chhattisgarh. Source: indiagrowing.com

Since we last reported, the CPI (Maoist) has carried out several actions for the election boycott campaign for the elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. The first phases of voting began in late April and will continue until June 4.

The CPI (Maoist) has been carrying out a boycott campaign in several districts of the country. In Medininagar (Jharkhand) posters were put up in Anganwadi center in the Hidernagar within the Lok Sabha constituency of Palamu. The posters called for an election boycott in the area, where elections will be held on May 13. Posters were also put up in the Baraiwa area. In response to these actions the district police and paramilitary forces have launched a massive campaign against “left-wing extremists” in Haidernagar, Mohamnadgunj, Hussainabad and Pandu police stations. In 2019, Maoist guerrillas blew up an office of the Bharatiya Janaya Party (BJP).

There have also been reports of the elimination of two brothers, allegedly by the Maoists in Bijapur. These two brothers gave their land to the administration to set up a police camp in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. Joga Madavi and Joga Hunga were executed after they were taken to court and found to be working as informers for the police.

There have also been several encounters with the repressive forces during this month of May. On May 1, there was an encounter between the Kerala police and Maoists in Wayanad. The bourgeois press reports that the Maoists opened fire at a specialized “Thunderbolt” team of the Kerala police, who are conducting a combined operation in the area. Several days earlier, on April 26, the Maoists had reportedly carried out propaganda in Kambamala for the campaign to boycott the Lok Sabha elections.

Also in Sukma, Chhattisgarh, an encounter between police forces and Maoists took place on May 3. Again, a special anti-Maoist operation led by the District Reserve Guards (DRG) and soldiers of the COBRA commando unit, specialized in anti-Maoist actions, is being carried out in the area.

While the old Indian State tries to sell the image that the elections are being held normally and that the Maoists are defeated, the truth is that the actions of electoral boycott have been taking place during all the weeks that the electoral process has lasted, and will most probably continue to occur until the end of the elections.