Elections 2019: These are the constituencies affected by Maoist violence that will vote today

• Bastar the most “sensitive” constituency goes into polls today, with 80,000 security personnel guarding the polling booths.
• Just days before the elections, a BJP MLA and four security personnel were killed in a Naxalite attack.
• Both Bihar and Odisha too have been put under high alert.

As voting commences in India, security has been tightened in polling booths across the country. But there are some polling booths, which are still marred by the blood stains caused by left-wing extremism.

With just one seat to offer in the Lok Sabha, Bastar, Chattisgarh has 80,000 security personnel guarding the voters. Just days before the polling started, an attack by guerilla attackers in Dantewada, in the same constituency, killed BJP state legislator, Bheema Mandavi, and four security personnel.

The state which has been the hotbed of left-wing extremism, also known as Maoism named after the founder of the Communist Party of China, saw an encounter on April 10, between the police and Naxalites in the Rajnandgaon District in Chattisgarh.

Days before the election, the maoists had also given out handwritten posters to villagers asking them to boycott the elections. The voter turnout in Bastar was 59% in the last general elections five years ago.

India’s red corridor reflects the eastern, central and southern districts that have been most affected by the Naxalist-Maoist insurgency.

While Bastar is the “most sensitive” constituency voting today, Bihar too has been under high security. Three bombs were discovered in Bihar’s Gaya constituency just hours before the polling booths opened. The bombs which were placed near a government school were defused.

On March 28, Maoists had also blown up ex-Bihar Legislative Council member Anuj Kumar Singh’s in Gaya, while asking voters to boycott the elections.

Security has also been beefed up in Telangana. In the state alone, over 5,749 polling stations have been marked as highly sensitive. Over 70,000 police forces have been deployed for the polling booths in the state.

A similar situation hovers around the state of Odisha, where the maoist constituencies including Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Gajapati districts have been put under high alert. The Border Security Force in the state has asked voters to vote without fear and to send out a message to maoists by voting.

See Also:
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