In Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh, voters bite the bullet
An army of anganwadi workers, security personnel and teachers is working tirelessly to prod people to vote, writes R Krishna Das
Sudha Tati, a housewife in Bhejji village of Chhattisgarh’s restive Sukma district, received unusual visitors on an afternoon in the last week of October. A group of women carrying thalis (plate) decorated with flowers, betel-nut, rice and turmeric were at her doorstep.
“We have come to invite you amma ( mother),” said Sheetal Kunjam, one of the members, succinctly. Tati, who just crossed 70 last month, looked confused. Without wasting time, Kunjam came to the point. With a big smile, she applied haldi-chawal (turmeric-rice) on her forehead and offered a piece of betel-nut.
“Amma, we are going to celebrate the biggest festival of democracy in the next few days, and you are invited to participate with full fervour and cast your precious vote,” she added.
Bhejji comes under the Konta Assembly constituency that is identified as the country’s worst Left Wing Extremism affected seat. Along with 18 Assembly segments, Konta was going to the polls in the first phase of elections in Chhattisgarh on November 12. In the 2013 state polls, not a single vote was cast in Bhejji polling booth due to a boycott call by Naxals.
Interestingly, the rebels had been more vocal this time and had triggered a series of ugly violence before polling to unleash a wave of terror. But it did not deter Tati, who along with her other relatives, defied the call and exercised her franchise. And so did more than half the population of the constituency that had an infamous past of deadly Naxal attacks.
Konta recorded 55.30 per cent turnout, up by almost seven per cent compared to the last Assembly elections. The 12 Assembly constituencies in Bastar — globally acknowledged as the hotbed of Naxal insurgency —also witnessed heavy polling. In comparison to 2013’s about 71 per cent, 72.80 per cent polling was recorded in 2018.
Kunjam’s team had made the difference. But the change did not come easily. The local administration had laid out a road map to successfully complete the democratic process in pockets that Naxals claim to be theirs. Volunteers from anganwadi were drawn to constitute teams at the village level to propel people to reach the polling booths by offering them rice and turmeric, a traditional token of invitation that has been in practice in the tribal belts.
The enthusiasm of voters lent new energy to members of the polling party. Deepak Pathak, a school teacher who was assigned to conduct polling in Gorkha booth, said when they opened the door of the school at 7 am, there were about a dozen people lined up to cast vote.
“Seeing people’s zeal, we were excited and performed our duties with more efficiency,” he said. When Pathak and his team reached the booth late in the evening of November 11, they thought that no one would come and polling would be a formality. In 2013, the booth recorded zero polling.
The team had to trek 15 km after being airdropped by an Indian Air Force chopper as the booth was located in the most inaccessible and hostile terrain of Sukma. “We were exhausted and tied,” Pathak recalled. “But the turnout made us forget the hardship.”
A few of the polling party members were driven by a mission to bring an end to Maoist violence. A 25-year-old anganwadi worker in Sukma has vowed to go to any booth for duty . “I wanted to strengthen democracy in the interior area as the Naxals had brutally killed my father and brother,” she said. She actively campaigned to pull people to participate in the election process.
Sodi Markam, a 30-year-old teacher in Sukma deployed on election duty, said he had been teaching students that they had to do something for the motherland. “Now, it was my turn,” he said. “If you ask me how I was feeling, I don’t have any reply but surely I felt that I was doing something great.”
The efforts of polling parties were meticulously backed by security personnel. “We took it as a challenge to conduct free and fair elections in Naxal areas,” Durgesh Madhav Awasthi, special director general of police (anti-naxal operation), said. For the successful completion of the whole electoral process, it was important to establish confidence among the masses in the state machinery, including security forces, so that they can come out openly and fearlessly to cast their vote.
The challenges were manifold for the forces. The para-military personnel sent from different places in the country were totally unaware of how to fight guerilla war in which Naxals have expertise. Most were trained only to handle normal law and order situations. In all, 12,5000 security personnel were inside the forests of Bastar protecting people and polling parties.
“We first provided basic training and briefing to the jawans,” Awasthi said. They were also provided printed documents underlining the dos and don’ts in the insurgency-hit pockets. The important one was to travel by foot as much as possible as vehicles become easy targets of improvised explosive device blast.
Political pundits in Bastar see the heavy turnout as a message for change. “The region has a tradition of coming out and voting in large numbers when they want change,” said observer Rajendra Vajpayee.
The electoral outcome in Bastar will be crucial for both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party that has lost its grip on tribal vote bank. The ruling party could retain only four seats in 2013 while it had bagged 11 in 2008 election. The BJP leaders, however, are at ease; claiming the Bastar polling was in their favour.
Exhorted a senior party functionary, “The political pundits have been claiming that heavy polling in Bastar was for change. While the BJP is in power, maximum seats in the region are in the Congress kitty. Whom the voters want to change, the candidate or the government?”
The justification has logic, and the answer will be clear when the voting machines are opened on December 11.