High Bastar turnout due to secret deployment of tribal youths

The unprecedented 66.04% polling seen in the Lok Sabha election in Bastar, the Chhattisgarh district worst affected by Maoist violence, was the result of a new strategy used by state police and paramilitary forces discreetly to check violence and ensure a large voter turnout.

To begin with, tribal youths were secretly deployed as volunteers in Bastar, Dantewada, Kondagaon and Bijapur districts, senior officials aware of the security arrangements made for the election in Chhattisgarh told ET, and care was taken not to publicise their engagement even within the forces for the sake of their security.

“They motivated villagers, many deep inside jungle, to come out and vote. In fact, they acted as a link between the police and villagers and contributed to the large turnout, besides sharing inputs on activities of Maoists,” said a senior police officer deployed in Bastar.


Alongside, security forces tasked women commandos with reaching out to tribal women and briefing them on the positives of exercising their democratic right, countering in the process Maoist propaganda against the state, said the police officer.

In the community policing driven strategy, which officials said paid dividends, less than half of the companies were used for election duty. Only 80 companies, 75 of paramilitary forces and five of Chhattisgarh armed force, were strategically used, they said, against more than 450 companies deployed during last year’s assembly elections that too went off peacefully.

Another key feature, they said, was the creation of a data bank of mobile connectivity in villages and sharing of selected numbers with the election control room. “This time, the Lok Sabha election in Bastar was a great challenge as it was coinciding with Maoists TCOC (tactical counter offensive campaign),” Inspector General of Police of Bastar, Vivekanand Sinha, told ET.