Sukma:

Whereas the residents of a number of distant villages in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar Lok Sabha constituency defied the ballot boycott name given by Maoists and exercised their franchise on Friday, folks from Puvarti village, the native place of a hardcore Maoist chief, selected to steer clear of the electoral course of.

Puvarti, a Maoist-stronghold in Sukma district bordering Bijapur district, is the house village of dreaded Naxalite chief Hidma, who’s believed to be the mastermind of a number of lethal assaults on safety forces in Bastar area.

Polling was held within the Bastar Lok Sabha seat on Friday and a voter turnout of 67.56 per cent was recorded there.

“No voters from Puvarti village exercised their voting proper throughout polling on Friday,” Sales space Stage Officer (BLO) of Puvarti polling sales space Java Patel advised PTI.

Some officers stated the villagers didn’t forged their vote out of worry.

The Puvarti polling sales space (No. 4), meant for voters of three villages – Puvarti, Tekalgudiyam and Jonaguda – was arrange in Silger village, round 20-25 kms away from Puvarti.

The variety of voters in Puvarti is 332, Tekalgudiyam 158 and Jonaguda 157 – which involves a complete of 547 voters for Puvarti sales space, he stated.

Complete 31 voters forged their votes at Puvarti polling sales space, however none of them was from Puvarti village and have been from Tekalgudiyam and Jonaguda, he stated.

In Bastar Lok Sabha seat, Konta meeting constituency which covers Sukma district recorded 54.31 per cent turnout.

Jagargunda space committee of Maoists had put up banners in Puvarti in adjoining villages interesting folks to boycott polls.

In February this yr, the Chhattisgarh police arrange its camp in Puvarti and the transfer was termed as a serious achievement for safety forces within the combat towards Left Wing Extremism.

Positioned in a dense forest round 150 km away from Sukma district headquarter, Puvarti has been disadvantaged of growth works and primary services because of the Naxal menace and geographical circumstances, officers had stated.

Organising of safety camps in distant and extremely Naxal-affected areas like Puvarti will assist 1000’s of villagers to eliminate the Maoist menace and get benefited with growth works and welfare schemes of the federal government, that they had added.

Notably, Puvarti is the house village of former commander of Maoists’ PLGA (folks’s liberation guerilla military) battalion #1 Hidma and incumbent commander Barse Deva.

Maoists’ Peoples’ Liberation Guerilla Military (PLGA) battalion no. 1 formation has been instrumental in finishing up a number of lethal assaults in south Bastar.

Forward of organising a camp in Puvarti, safety forces had arrange their camp in Tekalgudem, just a few kms away from Puvarti, in January, throughout which an encounter broke out between safety personnel and Naxalites. Three CRPF personnel, together with two commandos of its elite jungle warfare unit CoBRA, have been killed and 17 others injured in that incident.

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