In Naxal-hit Bastar, Election Commission ferries poll staff in copters

PTI

Bijapur/Sukma, April 16

With tight security in place, the authorities on Tuesday kicked off an exercise to ferry polling personnel in helicopters in Chhattisgarh’s Naxalite-hit Bastar constituency, where voting will take place in the first phase of the elections on April 19.

Three-phase elections in Chhattisgarh

• Elections to 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh will be held in three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7
• Bastar is the only seat to go to polls in first phase while Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker (ST), which also have Naxalite presence in some pockets, will vote on April 26
• Helicopters will ferry polling personnel for 167 booths in Bastar (ST), Kanker (ST) and Mahasamund seats considering Maoist threat
• As many as 919 polling staff will be sent to 156 stations by helicopters in Bastar, 84 to nine booths in Kanker and two in Gariaband area of Mahasamund

The authorities have started dispatching electronic voting machines (EVMs) and polling parties to booths in sensitive areas of Bijapur and Sukma districts, a senior official said.

Located in the southern part of the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, Bijapur and Sukma districts have reported multiple incidents of Naxalite attacks on security personnel during elections in the past.

A total of 245 polling booths have been set up for general elections in Bijapur, of which 99 booths in the interior areas have been relocated (to safer places), Bijapur collector Anurag Pandey said.

Around 76 polling parties will be ferried to their destinations in helicopters, and the exercise began on Tuesday from the Bijapur district headquarters, three days before the polling, he said. The teams that reach their destinations ahead of the polling day will stay in the nearest camp of security forces, he said. At least 27 polling teams and EVMS will be transported in choppers on Tuesday from Sukma district headquarters, he said.

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