Kanker: Banners and leaflets indicating that it was published by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) were witnessed today in the Kanker district of southern Chattisgarh, which called upon the public to boycott the coming assembly elections in the state. The area where the it happened is a tribal-dominated area. The banners were in red and read in Hindi language saying, “Boycott the Chhatisgarh Vidhan Sabha elections….what has the Chhattisgarh government done in 15 years?” and after that the banners went on to list “Naya Raipur, new projects, new mines, new detention camps”, which have, according to the outfit, have harmed tribals. Several leaflets urging the people to boycott were also found.

Anyhow, many election boycott calls have not been linked to the Maoists. For example, the people of the tribal-dominated Belakchhar Gram Panchayat of Korba district in Chhattisgarh have announced that they would be boycotting the coming assembly elections over the issue that the government has not fulfilled the promises it made.

But the calls for election boycott had experienced limited success in the past with almost all seats in Chhattisgarh recording a consistently high turnout. But there have been a disproportionate high number of voters in tribal dominated seats that have chosen the None of The Above (NOTA) option.

For example, in the assembly elections held in the year 2013, a total of 10.15 percent voters from the Bijapur constituency of the southern Chhattisgarh selected the button of NOTA instead of voting for any other candidate. In Chitrakot constituency of Bastar, a total of 9.09 percent voters chose NOTA in the last elections. The NOTA choosing voter’s proportion in the 2013 elections was about 8.93 percent in Dantewada, 5.98 percent in Narainpur, 5.39 percent in Kondagaon and 5.91 percent in Keshkal. All of these constituencies are located in the southern part of Chhattisgarh and are reserved for Schedule Tribes candidates. The area has been under worst Moist insurgency conditions.

In 2013, the average percentage of the voters who chose NOTA in Chhattisgarh was about 3.07 percent. In urban areas, it was lower. For example, in the Raipur City South constituency, only 1.55 percent of voters selected NOTA for the 2013 assembly elections.

The Assembly of Chhattisgarh comprises of 90 seats and will vote in two phases – one being held on November 12 and another on November 20. The areas of southern Chhattisgarh that have seen Maoist linked violence will go on to vote in the first phase of polling.

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