After receiving a major jolt in Chhattisgarh due to May 25 Maoist attack, the Congress has decided to approach the Election Commission demanding measures to ensure free and fair election in naxal affected Bastar region by installing camera and CCTVs in polling booths.
A delegation of the party leaders from Bastar led by AICC General Secretary BK Hariprasad and Acting PCC president Charan Das Mahant will meet the Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath on Friday at 12.30 pm and submit a memorandum demanding these measures.
The Congress feels that the high voting percentage of 80 to 85 per cent in the forest regions during the last assembly polls indicated that elections were rigged by the ruling BJP in connivance with local administration and Maoists to get the verdict in its favour. The BJP had got 11 out of 12 seats in Bastar during the last Assembly elections.
“In Bastar where people sometime fear going out to buy their daily essential needs in view of the Maoist threat, the 80 per cent to 85 per cent polling figures raises the doubt about polls being rigged,” Hariprasad said.
So, this time the Congress does not want to take any chance and would approach the CEC in advance. The will urge the Election Commission to install GPS in helicopters that are used to take Electronic Voting Machines in these difficult terrains to ensure that they reach the polling booth and are not landed somewhere else so that the elections can be rigged. Also, cameras and CCTV should be installed in all polling booths, he said.
Meanwhile, Congress
vice-president Rahul Gandhi will meet the tribal leaders from Bastar on Friday to know about their problems and difficulties in carrying out political activities. The meeting is being held to motivate party workers who are highly demoralised after the Maoist attack on Congress Parivartan Yatra which killed then PCC President Nand Kumar Patel, senior Congress leader VC Shukla and Mahendra Karma and others.
The top Congress leaders have already assured the party workers that adequate security will be provided to them during the Yatra, which would be resumed soon. Rahul himself has taken up the issue with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde urging him to provide adequate central paramilitary forces for it. Mahant’s security is also being beefed up, sources said.