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Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005

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Jharkhand polls under the shadow of the gun

By Sandeep Dikshit

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

An armed policeman keeps vigil at a public meeting in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on Monday.

SIMARIA (CHATRA), JAN. 31. The light machinegun, manned by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan, peers into the thickly-wooded valley and ravines of Latehar.Half-a-day away in Simaria town, two armoured vehicles along with several jawans keep a wary eye on a candidate working the crowd.

All along the highway from Ranchi to Daltongunj on the edge of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, most of the wayside eating joints are closed and business is lean in the few that are open. Trucks and buses have been commandeered to transport Central paramilitary force personnel to check against the naxalites who threaten to dictate the election results in at least 24 out of 26 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand going to the polls on February 3.

Latehar, half-way between Ranchi and Daltongunj, has seen a record deployment of CPMF personnel and yet over 100 armed members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) appeared at a sharp turn between the forests three days ago to ambush a police jeep in broad daylight that left two dead. And further down the road the next day, a CRPF road opening patrol unearthed claymore mines hours before the Jharkhand Chief Minister, Arjun Munda's cavalcade was scheduled to pass through. The latest discussion in the bazaars of Daltongunj and Simaria is how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Venkaiah Naidu's helicopter was attacked.

The naxalites' approach is different from that of the Lok Sabha polls when both the People's War (PW) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), groaning under sustained police action and liberal use of the now repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), had given a call for the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance Government. This time they are willing to be ``managed'' and cash-rich candidates or those with old ties are doing just that.

For the record, the Assembly elections opened with the call to boycott the polls. But a few days later the picture changed as one moved from one constituency to another. The CPI (Maoist) formed by the merger of the PW and the MCC, also called for the defeat of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The RJD was added to the list of its enemies following a severe crackdown before its Patna rally late last year. But that temporary surge seems to have spent itself on the shores of caste equations and practical reality.

The RJD candidate from Daltongunj has free access to naxalite strongholds in the forests even though he can hardly be called an agent of social change. Nor has he had a record of standing up against human rights excesses. The reason: the local commanders are from the Yadav caste, the same as that of the RJD chief and Railway Minister. Second, the candidate is a tendu leaf contractor and was once arrested under POTA for being the contact between the extremists and the city.

For the record, the CPI (Maoist) has relented and said ``good candidates'' can enter the jungles but would not be allowed to campaign in their strongholds (estimated at two-thirds of 3,000 hamlets in Palamu). Their attitude to the RJD nominee from Daltongunj and another in neighbouring Chattarpur has left other contestants wondering about the naxalite definition of a good candidate. More mysterious is their approach in Vishrampur where the campaign vehicles of all but one major contestant have been torched.

In Simaria, the situation is different. The comrades from the jungles here appear firm on a complete boycott.

The last Lok Sabha elections saw only 35 per cent polling but that was because heavy polling took place in Chatra town.

``We expect only 25 per cent polling. Out strategy would be to send the women to the booths first. They usually don't target women,'' said a political activist.

But on the way to Simaria through thick jungles, two campaign vehicles of a political party wait in an area where the common strategy is to speed through and that too during daylight.

``He must be managing the jungles'' is the cryptic comment in the town.

While the BJP is vocal in its opposition to the naxalites, perhaps because its base of upper castes have either put up stiff resistance as in Itbari town of Chatra district or live out of the naxalite areas.

But other centrist and left parties are still waiting to see how the naxalites behave on polling day.

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