Last Updated: November 08, 2023, 00:37 IST
A total of 70.87% of voters turned out in the 20 seats that went to polls in phase 1: 12 in Bastar and 8 around Rajnandgaon. The number stood at 76.42% in 2018’s first phase of polling. (File Photo: PTI)
While Naxals tried to disrupt voting in many areas, the turnout in the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly polls on Tuesday was 70.87%
At 6am on Tuesday, inspector GD Srikanth and his team from the D/206 CoBRA battalion of the CRPF set out in the Tondamarka area of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh for patrolling and area domination ahead of polling. Moments later, Srikanth was lying in his camp with a shattered ankle. A pressure IED set up by Naxals to disrupt polling had gone off in Elmagunda, injuring him.
The IED blast at the start of the day was soon followed by at least five incidents of Naxals trying to disrupt voting. In Kanker, a DRG jawan was injured in an IED blast, and a joint team of BSF and Chhattisgarh police repulsed a Naxal attack in Banda, Kanker a few hours later. One AK-47 was recovered. In Narayanpur, Naxals fired near a polling booth under Orcha police station to stop voting. However, ITBP and local police personnel retaliated. A police statement claimed that some Naxals were injured or killed in the encounter.
An IED was recovered by a CRPF road-opening party in Dantewada too.
Post-noon, Sukma saw one more Naxal attack, just a few metres away from the polling booth. “It was a probing fire which was soon retaliated…firing went on for 10 minutes and then they escaped,” an official told CNN-News18.
Inspector general of Bastar P Sundarraj called these incidents proof of Naxal desperation. “We have taken multiple security-related steps but some of these blasts are unavoidable. IEDs on roads are the favourite modus operandi of Maoists. We sanitise the roads but it is a constant cat-and-mouse game,” he told CNN-News18 while casting his vote in Jagdalpur.
Voter turnout
The Naxal threat did not deter voters as long queues were seen in many booths. In Cherpal, Barsur, Dantewada, some villagers alleged that they were not allowed to vote as CRPF personnel shut the gate at 2.30pm. Voting in Bastar was on till 3pm. Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in a post on social media site X also put out a complaint letter, alleging the CRPF was acting on behalf of the central government since the BJP was losing.
The overall voting percentage turned out to be less than in 2018. A total of 70.87% of voters turned out in the 20 seats that went to polls in phase 1: 12 in Bastar and 8 around Rajnandgaon. The number stood at 76.42% in 2018’s first phase of polling.
Resonance of Mahadev app issue
As the first phase of the polls was underway, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a public rally in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district, once again took on Bhupesh Baghel. “Will you allow such a corrupt CM to continue?” he asked the people.
But deep inside the forests of Bastar, paddy and not the Mahadev app scam was on the minds of voters.
Sunil Kumar Netam from Nilabhaya village is scared to show his face on camera. Nilabhaya had seen Naxals gun down a journalist in the last elections. The fear of Maoists is such that even in 2023 the nearest booth for the people of this village is 8 kilometres away in Arbe. “Agar sirf main baat karunga to jaan ka khatra ho jayega…Shakal nahi dikhaunga to bhi sarkar theek nahin samjhegi (I’ll risk my life by just talking…If I hide my face, authorities may get suspicious),” he said, when CNN-News18 asked him what voting meant to him and his neighbours. Netam’s dilemma was shared by many locals, swinging between Naxal diktat and government efforts to promote voting.
Of its 750 registered voters, Arbe saw only 250 turn up. Most villagers from Nilabhaya said they walked for an hour and crossed a river to get here. Asked about the Mahadev app corruption issue, Girish Kashyap shook his head. “We don’t have roads here. That is the issue. For rice (from PDS) we have to come so far. In the monsoon, for three months, the river is swollen, so we get no rice,” he said. Kashyap added that “karz mafi” (loan waiver) will make no difference to his life since small farmers like him don’t take loans from banks or the government.
When CNN-News18 asked the villagers waiting to vote if they had heard of the Mahadev app, only one said he knew and that about Rs 500 crore was allegedly paid to CM Baghel. Most had heard nothing about the case. Two others said the app was meant to give election-related and Manipur (violence)-related information to the people.