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Friday, Feb 04, 2005

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Ballot amid bullets in Jharkhand

By Sandeep Dikshit

DALTONGANJ (JHARKHAND), FEB. 3. The first-ever elections to the Jharkhand Assembly today opened with a landmine blast that killed eight policemen out on patrolling in the naxalite-dominated jungles, about 30 km from here. As the day progressed, shots rang out at several places in the forested hills of old Palamu district, severely disrupting polling in several constituencies. Till reports last came in, gunfights were still on in at least three places.

However, heavy polling took place in villages in the plains and towns. Clashes took place in booths where activists of more than one party insisted on casting bogus votes. At some places camaraderie prevailed with parties agreeing to share the uncast votes among themselves. Reacting to complaints of votes having already been cast, polling staff advised complainants to vote in somebody else's name instead.

A tour of the extremist-affected Hussainabad and Daltonganj showed that the election staff did not insist on supporting documents to corroborate the identity of voters. Voter Identity Cards were few and far between. For instance, a random perusal of the voters' list in Behera Khurd village in Shahpur block showed that cards had been issued to only six of the 100 eligible voters. The percentage of issued cards was higher in the urban areas but the exercise appeared meaningless.

The voting slips issued by election agents sufficed. The only safeguard was the indelible ink but it was superfluous in several booths taken over by party activists.

Central Reserve Police Force personnel and the State police could control the unruly mobs only at some places. "The elections even in this backward area has become expensive — most of the candidates are businessmen, former criminals or those who have made their pile by smuggling timber and other forest produce," said a civil rights lawyer.

In Daltonganj town, polling opened on a sombre note. The bodies of policemen killed in the blast were brought in vans for post-mortem. A huge crowd stood outside the Government Hospital and watched as the bodies arrived and were taken away to the Police Lines for a farewell gun salute.

Reports from polling staff who managed to reach the town by nightfall suggested low voting in the forests. A complete picture will emerge tomorrow with the arrival of the staff who have stayed back instead of travelling on unfriendly dirt tracks at night.

An attempt to travel to the naxalite stronghold of Bermo was blocked by the police, who feared retaliation in response to the killing of four activists in the Latahar Assembly constituency.

However, a Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) leader insisted that the encounters were a "matter of chance." "There was no general political line unlike in the last elections when we were told to work for the defeat of the National Democratic Alliance Government. Our leaders are busy sorting out organisational issues following the merger of the People's War Group and the MCC. The policemen were targeted because the Inspector leading the patrol did not heed the warnings to stop supporting a candidate from Hussainabad constituency. Other encounters took place because guerilla squads ran into security patrols or because they could be stopping individual initiatives by sub-zonal commanders to support certain candidates. Otherwise, why did good polling take place in areas such as Salatia in Chainpur," he asked.

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Ballot amid bullets in Jharkhand