His brother is a Maoist, but he came to vote
PUNNAR, GADCHIROLI: When Chipda Usendi and his family entered the polling booth and cast their votes on Thursday, they were not just challenging the Maoist call to boycott the election. They were choosing ballot over blood.
Ten years ago, Chipda’s elder brother Maho, now 32, left home and joined the Maoists as a fulltime soldier. Today, he is a part of the dalam.
Punnar in south Gadchiroli, the village the Usendis live in, is a known Maoist stronghold. At least five from the village, including Maho, have joined them. The rebels often held meetings there in the past.
That’s how Maho was drawn to them. “They used to hold meetings almost every week or fortnight. They would always talk of defeating the police force by a revolution, but would never force anyone to join them,” said an elderly villager. Locals and his family remember him as being just a regular boy, never hotheaded. Chipda, 25, said he never hears from his elder brother. “He did come here a couple of times, but he hardly spoke to me.”
Chipda’s life is intri- cately involved in Maho’s choice. When Maho left the village, Rami, his wife of three years, had just delivered a baby girl. Villagers later heard that he had married a woman in the Maoist camp.
It was then that Chipda proposed to marry his sisterin-law. “He felt that this way, his brother’s deeds would not end up destroying the two lives that were dependent on him,” said village sarpanch Devpandu Gawle.
Chipda, who led the family to the polling booth on Thursday, does not think much of his decision to vote. “Everyone in our village was voting. Hence, I felt, we should too,” he said.
What does he think about the choice his brother has made? “It’s wrong. He shouldn’t have gone away.”