The Naxal onslaught on the security forces in Sukma on Tuesday is part of an evolved two-pronged strategy — to target political leaders and forces and conduct boycott campaign — to disrupt the forthcoming Parliamentary polls.
The revelation comes after analysis of a recently-recovered document of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) titled Chunao Bahishkar detailing the outfit’s designs for poll boycott through targeted attacks against security forces and political leaders. The document was recovered by the security forces on February 2 at Gaibathan forest area of Jamui district in Bihar.
While the political agenda entails an election boycott campaign, military designs include selective elimination and abduction of political leaders and targeting vehicles engaged in electioneering, besides ambushing police and security forces. Surrendered Naxal leader and official spokesperson of the outfit Gudsa Usendi also revealed that the CPI (Maoist) plans to take advantage of rather thin and dispersed deployment of the security forces during the polls.
The election boycott campaign will be sustained by issuing Press releases and distributing/pasting anti-election pamphlets, posters and banners. A “Vote Bahishkar Committee” formed by the outfit has been tasked to raise issues like setting up of security forces’ camps, displacement, inflation, unemployment, arrest of Maoists and “Operation Green Hunt.”
The document has purportedly been issued by Jharkhand Regional Committee of the CPI (Maoist). The banned outfit has plans to disrupt the elections especially in Banka, lakhisarai, Munger, Jamui and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar and Dumka, Pakur, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Koderma, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Chatra, Ranchi, Sahebganj, Deogarh, Jamtara, Godda, East and West Singhbhum of Jharkhand. Similar plans have been made for areas in South Bastar of Chhattisgarh, parts of Andhra Pradesh and extensive plantation of landmines in Narayanpatna, Bandhugaon and laxmipur blocks of Koraput district in Odisha.
As part of the political tactic to disrupt the polls, the outfit will organise meetings, rallies, torchlight processions and cultural programmes to spread the message of poll boycott, besides taking disciplinary action against its own cadres found indulging in electioneering.
An updated “Chunao Bahishkar Ghoshna Patra” prepared by the Eastern Regional Bureau of the CPI (Maoist) would also be distributed, says a Union Home Ministry note sent to the Naxal-affected States. “The CPI (Maoist) will be making a wholehearted effort with a well laid out strategy to subvert the election process. The outfit will create an atmosphere of fear and vigorous poll boycott campaign,” the Ministry note warned.
The Centre has also advised the States to conduct a thorough review of the polling stations witnessing violence in the previous lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Apart from advising the States to step up anti-Naxal operations, the Centre also suggested to implement a rigorous propaganda campaign at the grass roots level to enthuse the masses towards the importance of democratic process and futility of Naxalism and encourage them to support the election machinery in conducting fair and peaceful elections, the note added.