Thousands in Maoist-hit Bastar to vote for 1st time in own villages since Independence

As many as 120 villages in the Maoist-affected Bastar region in south Chhattisgarh comprising seven districts will soon get 126 new polling booths.

The booths will benefit 54,000 people who will not have to travel several kilometres to cast their votes this election. Earlier, these people had to travel around 10 km to vote.

An estimated 35,000 people will also be able to to vote in their own villages (in around 80 booths) for the first time since Independence.

‘The remaining 38 odd polling booths had to be relocated to nearby villages due to history of looting EVM machines/ballot boxes during previous elections in the last two decades. But now these polling booths will be restored due to our continuous efforts in pushing back Maoists,’ said a police official.

The feat was achieved by the government over the last five years with 65 police camps being set up and at the cost of 133 security personnel losing their lives, 175 civilians being killed by Maoists and 197 Maoists being killed in encounters. Another 1,630 Maoists including many involved in violent activities surrendered before police.

Confirming the developments, Sundarraj P, Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, said: ‘These 126 new polling stations would be narrating the story about triumph of ‘ballot over bullet’ to the future generation in Bastar region. Majority of these new polling stations are in the erstwhile Naxal stronghold areas. After the opening of more than 65 new security camps established in the past five years, there is remarkable change in the ground situation.’

One of these villages is Chandameta in Bastar district which was considered a stronghold of Maoists. The villagers of Chandameta had requested the district administration to get them a polling booth as they had to walk around 8 kilometers to cast their vote.

The first phase of voting in Chhattisgarh will take place on November 7 for 20 seats of which 12 are from Bastar region. Among the seven districts in the region, most of these booths are from Kanker and Kondagaon districts with 32 booths in each district followed by Konta (20 booths), Bastar (19) , Narayanpur (9), Dantewada ( and Bijapur (6).