Saffron in Red corridor, BJP needs an anti-Maoist strategy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose predecessor had termed Maoists the “biggest internal security challenge”, is yet to unveil his agenda to tackle the issue. He did not even visit Chhattisgarh after 14 CRPF personnel were killed in a Naxal ambush in Sukma this month.

Due to fragmented polity, Jharkhand has witness sprouting up of several ultra-Left groups in the last decade. If Tuesday’s results, reflect a yearning for stability, it cannot be achieved without tackling these outfits.

The Chhattisgarh government has always blamed the lack of coordination on the Centre’s part and also cited shortage of funds for its failure to tackle the rebels.

After the encounter of Mallojulla Koteshwara Rao alias Kishnaji in 2011 and the fall of Lalgarh in West Bengal, almost all top Maoists are stationed in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and cadres are drawn from the disillusioned tribal population.

Of the nearly 90 security personnel killed by the Maoists this year, 70 were from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand alone. The two states accounted for the killings of 75 of 114 security personnel in 2012, and 113 of 142 in 2011.

Having dominated the Red territories electorally, Modi must now bring the two states together, chart a strategy to address the concerns of people and reclaim the zone largely abandoned by the government.