57 yrs after getting panchayat, 7 Gadchiroli villages vote in free polls

Nagpur: The recently concluded civic elections in

Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district

were historic in a way, as polling took place for the first time in one of the remotest corner of the tribal district. The cluster of seven villages, under Jhaveli Khurd gram panchayat on Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, saw their first polling in 57 years, since the panchayat came into existence.

A team of nine polling parties, guarded by layers of heavy security cordon, walked for almost 13km through the forested region along the state border. The area is known as a minefield created by the Maoists. This made the polling on January 20 all the more important in an area declared by Maoists as a liberated zone with ‘Jantana Sarkar’ or self-imposed governance.

The booths in the villages saw around 58% polling, which selected representatives for seven out of nine wards. In all the earlier gram panchayat elections, the democratic process was turned into a farce by the Maoists influencing the polling to ensure their candidates won unopposed.

With a plan in place this time, security forces trekked the 21km forested stretch on the state borders on foot to reach Kanhalgaon Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Kanker in Chhattisgarh. They trekked back the same way to return after the polling.

The polling party was first flown from Halewada police post at Etapalli in south Gadchiroli to Kanhalgaon’s Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Kanker two days before the polling.

After the security forces reached Kanhalgaon, they escorted the polling team members, mostly from education department, back into Maharashtra on foot to reach Jhaveli Khurd after covering a distance of 6.5km on foot.

It is learnt that heavily armed Maoists, possibly Kasansoor Local Operational Squad (LOS) and other dalams, had reached as close as 4km to target the polling party. However, they refrained from attacking as security forces were present in huge numbers and with enough fire power to outdo any ambush. The Maoists, however, managed to stop tribals from Kundum village from reaching Jhaveli Khurd to vote.

SDPO Sudarshan Patil, who worked under close supervision of SP Ankit Goyal and DIG Sandip Patil, said the security forces had to be extremely cautious about the Maoists plan of ambush or a surprise blast.

Tehsildar Ajay Nashte said kotwal Rama Pungati and talathi Suresh Usendi had encouraged the tribals to vote without fear and choose their own representatives.

Collector Deepak Singla said conducting elections at in the remotest part were really challenging but was made possible through close coordination between district police and administration.

Prior the recently concluded gram panchayat elections, the polling process was marred by Maoist influence and threats, which did not allow anyone either to step outside for voting or conduct polls here. The panel of ward members, whoever the Maoists wanted, would be elected unopposed.

Taking it up as a challenge this year, Gadchiroli police and district administration pressed heavy security forces into action to ensure the polling was made a reality.

In 2019, the local tribal population voted for the first time in state assembly election. Prior to 2019, police or district administration with polling party could never enter this stretch, considered a highly sensitive Maoist bastion.