Maoists ask voters in Bastar to boycott polls, support Kashmir separatism

KONDAGAON (BASTAR): While former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh along with his entourage was campaigning for BJP in the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which goes to poll on April 11, Maoists circulated hand written posters asking villagers not only to boycott the elections but also to protest against the banning of Kashmiri militant group JKLF led by Yasin Malik.


This is for the first time Maoists have issued a statement on the recent crackdown against separatists in Kashmir by the Modi government.

Villagers claimed the ‘parchas’ (posters) were distributed by the Maoist over ground workers on bikes through the night. Chhattisgarh police confirmed that the hand-written posters were issued by the Communist Party of India (Maoists).

The posters issued by CPI(Maoist) committee of east Bastar, asking for boycott of polls were found littered around in the Bamhni village, just eight kilometers from the local administrative office of Kondagaon town.

Though normal life seemed unaffected by the posters but a local resident who did not want to be named said, “This is alarming since it has been after almost a decade that these ‘parchas’ were thrown so close to the government offices.”

Strangely, a red-colored fabric poster written by the Darbha division of committee of the Maoists, was found on the walls of in Narey Perpa school, along with a strongly worded letter on Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), in the outer Kirandul municipal town, 45kms from Dantewada. “The ban on the JKLF, which is fighting for the independence of Kashmir (from India) is part of the fascistic Brahmanical Hindutava destructive activities; you must protest against it,” the poster written in an inconsistent handwriting said.

The association of Maoists with Kashmir and North East separatist groups is old; Maoists have made statements backing them, in the past as well. Incidentally, the noted writer Arundhati Roy has had shared a good rapport with both Kashmiri separatists especially Yasin Malik and the Maoists whom she visited some years ago in Dantewada.

Chhattisgarh police said that since the central committee of Maoists has taken a decision for the election boycott, these posters are execution of that decision by their field formations.

Bastar Lok Sabha constituency comprising five districts, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukma, is represented by the BJP’s Dinesh Kashyap. The voter turnout in Bastar during 2014 LS polls was around 59 per cent, a considerable improvement from 47 percent in the 2009 LS polls.

A local journalist said the Maoist threats or violence do have an impact on the polling. “In the interior villages of the Western Bastar Maoist affected districts Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur, majority of the voters refrain from voting.”