The banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) is strategising to enforce poll boycott and disrupt the electoral process during the forthcoming Parliamentary polls.
The Naxal move comes close on the heels of successful conduct of polls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh along with other States in which the ultras could not impact the democratic exercise amid heavy deployment of security forces. The CPI(Maoist) has assessed that the deployment of security forces in Naxal areas would be comparatively thin during lok Sabha elections in comparison to the Assembly polls and it give the ultras an opportunity to enforce the “poll boycott” call at that time, says a Union Home Ministry note.
Intelligence inputs also indicate that the Maoist leadership has undertaken a review in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh for chalking out a strategy to thwart the upcoming Parliamentary polls. The top Naxal leadership is also identifying the poll activists and local supporters of the political parties who took an active part in the election process during the Assembly polls and punish them as a measure of deterrence in view of the forthcoming lok Sabha elections.
Among the reasons identified by the outfit for its failure include its inability to carry out acts of violence against the security forces and polling personnel during the Assembly elections.
The leadership is also upset with its local units for their failure to prevent villagers in Chhattisgarh from exercising their franchise. Disconnect between the senior formations of the outfit who chalk out strategies and the ground-level cadres who implement the same, large scale deployment of security forces during the elections and cooperation extended by the local Government servants to the poll process have been identified as other important factors responsible for the failure of the “poll boycott” call, adds the Home Ministry note.
The Naxal leadership has suffered a significant blow during the last two years and their rank and file is demoralised in the wake of security forces stepping up their offensive and venturing into so called liberated zones. However, CRPF officials point out that the military capabilities including tactical planning of the outfit remains intact and they can stage a comeback at a time when the elections are likely to be held.