In yet another horrific incident of targeted killing of political representatives in Maoist-affected Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, armed cadres of the outlawed Communist Party of India Maoist (CPI Maoist) have shot dead a former district councillor in Dantewada.
The fateful incident occurred when around 20–30 Maoists barged into the house of Joga Podiyam, a former district councillor and a Congress Party worker, at around 11pm on Friday, April 26, and shot him dead on point blank range. The incident occurred in the Potli village of the Maoist-affected Aranpur police station limits of Dantewada.
According to initial reports, the Maoists have labelled charges of espionage against the deceased alongside alleging him for working for the Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls held on April 19.
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The incident, which occurred just around 500 metres away from the Chhattisgarh Armed Forces (CAF) camp of Potli has sent shockwaves across the area.
Podiyam’s son killed in 2014
Significantly, Podiyam was said to be on the hit-list of the Maoists, who were furious by the significant turnout of voters in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and state assembly elections held last year. It has been learned that Podiyam, being a political worker had motivated the locals to participate and cast their votes in the elections, irking the Maoists, who have been issuing diktats to boycott the elections.
According to the reports, the Maoist had also killed Podiyam’s son in the year 2014 and had warned Podiyam for similar fate in the past as well.
Boycotting of elections and killings of political representative
It is worth mentioning here that the Maoist have been a staunch opponents of the democratic process since always and have been threatening the people and the political representatives with dire consequences if they opts to participate in the democratic process under the regions infested by the ultras.
Earlier, the Maoist in a press release issued in the middle of this month, had also appealed for boycotting the elections, citing alleged corporatisation. The ultras in the press relaese had asserted that the people should hit back the BJP, RSS workers as they are developing tourism centres across several places of religious significance to fool the masses and the consecration ceremony of Ramlala was part of it.
Significantly, around one dozen political representatives mostly associated with the Narendra Modi led BJP have been killed by the Maoist in a string of targeted killing in the last one and a half year in Bastar division alone.
Earlier, in another display of raw violence against unarmed civilians, the Maoists killed another innocent villager in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on April 16.
According to the details, local Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Upsarpanch (sub- village head), Pancham Das, was brutally hacked to death by the members of the Small Action Team (SAT) in Dandwan village under Farasgaon police station limits of Narayanpur.
The Maoist barged in the house of Pancham Das on April 16 and then forcibly took him along at a nearby deserted place, where they hacked him to death after labelling him with charges of espionage.
Following the murder, the Purva (East) Bastar Division Committee of the outlawed CPI Maoist, while claiming the responsibility for the attack, has also hung banners, posters, leaving pamphlets in the area in which they had claimed Das to be an informant of the police.
Reacting to the brutal incident, Deputy Chief Minister of the State, Vijay Sharma, while interacting with the media, had informed “that the deceased was a worker of the BJP, he was a village head and its a cowardly act carried out by the Maoist. You have a gun and you can shoot anyone, What kind of approach is this? The Vishnu Deo Sai led government is very clear about establishing peace in Bastar and even if a small group of the Maoists is ready for the peace talk, we are always ready for it, added DY CM Sharma.
It is worth mentioning here that despite the boycott appeal and violence unleashed against the political representatives, the Maoist affected Lok Sabha seats of Bastar has witnessed an all time high turnout of voters (68.3 per cent) in the recently concluded elections on 19th of this month indicating the augmenting space of democracy in the tribal heartland.
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