Naxalite threat: Bastar villagers don't want indelible ink after voting

Fearing threats by Maoists who have called for a boycott of polls in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, villagers have requested election officers not to apply indelible ink on their fingers after they cast their vote, PTI reported.

Maoists have allegedly warned the villagers that if anyone was found with ink marks, their fingers would be chopped off.

Villagers said they were ready to defy the Maoist threats and cast their votes if the indelible ink was not applied on their fingers.

Eighteen Naxal-affected constituencies in eight districts -- Bastar, Bijapur, Kondagaon, Sukma, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Kanker and Rajnandgaon –are to go to polls in the first phase on 11 November, while the second phase of polling, covering 72 seats spread across 19 districts, would be held on 19  November, the report said.

According to the report, the villagers from Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur had requested district election officers (collector) for the exemption.

The Dantewada district election officer has proposed that the indelible ink not be made mandatory in constituencies of his region.

The proposal had been forwarded to the Election Commission for further consideration.

A similar proposal has also been received from two more southern districts, including Sukma and Bijapur.

Over a lakh security personnel drawn from different para-military forces have been deployed in the sensitive and hyper sensitive areas, where they would carry out area domination exercise and intensive patrolling in the remote areas, the report said.