Patna: The state government in Bihar has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to reduce poll timing by one hour in the insurgency-hit regions in view of lurking threats from Maoists as the campaigning for six parliamentary constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 10 came to an end today.
A total of six parliamentary constituencies go to poll in the first phase. They include — Sasaram, Karakat, Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui — all identified as the areas badly infested with Maoists. In fact, these are the constituencies where the rebels virtually call the shots. This is the reason why the local administration in Bihar has got so panicky this time.
Authorities said the state government had written to the Election Commission to close polling in the insurgency-hit parliamentary constituencies at 3 pm itself — an hour before the scheduled 4 pm.
“We have made a request to the EC. Let’s see what happens,” Bihar chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha told the media on Monday evening.
Significantly, only last month the state’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer R. Lakshmanan had announced the polling in the six constituencies of Bihar would be held between 7 am and 4 pm.
The fresh request from the state government would now force the ECI to reschedule poll timing in the Maoist-hit areas of the state. The Maoists have already made their intentions clear by killing three security personnel in landmine blast in Bihar on Monday.
They were killed while defusing a powerful time bomb planted by the rebels under Dhibra police station of Aurangabad district. Coming barely two days ahead of polls, the blast has come as a major challenge for the state authorities to conduct a peaceful and violence-free polling. In the past few days, the police have recovered hundreds of detonators, explosive and bombs planted in various regions of state, indicating how rebels remain a major threat to the state administration.
New techniques
The rebels have already given calls for poll boycotts across the state, and to ensure it, the Maoists have now turned to technology — sending out bulk SMS to voters calling for poll boycott. This indicates the seriousness of the situation in the state where 33 districts out of its total 38 have been identified as Maoist-hit.
“Though they have always been against elections, this is a new method adopted by the Maoists. They are now using bulk SMS while earlier they used posters and pamphlets,” state director general of police Abhayanand said.
Earlier this week, the rebels asked the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and ruling Janata Dal (United) to shut down their election offices in Dumaria block of Gaya — one of the six parliamentary constituencies going to poll in the first phase — and wind up campaigning.
In view of the threats, the elections offices of these two parties have already been closed down.
“We got a call on my mobile phone by someone named Rajivji who declared himself as a Maoist commander. He told me to immediately shut down our election offices and stay away from campaigning saying BJP is a ‘communal’ party. So, our election offices are no more functioning now,” the local block chief of BJP Birendra Pathak told the media today.
