After a gap of almost two decades, the residents of Alluri Sitharama Raju district are gearing up to visit the nearest polling stations to cast their franchise with a peaceful mindset, without any concern for violence from the Left Wing Extremists of the CPI (Maoist).
Hitherto, the polls have always been mired with violence and tribals who inhabit the district, were hesitant in going to the polling stations, due the threats and dictums from the Maoists.
But this time, even the residents from interior villages of Pedabayalu, Injari, G. Madugula, GK Veedhi and Chintapalli, once all Maoist strongholds, are unmindful of the few pamphlets that were distributed by the LWE, urging them not to go for voting, with a tinge of threat.
“I have not voted for the last 20 years, as every time just before the polling date, the Maoists would troop into our villages and ask us not to go for polling. But now our villages are free from the Maoists and we will be going to the polling station to celebrate the biggest festival,” said Kilo Narayana of Pedabayalu mandal.
ASR district, which was earlier part of the Visakhapatnam district, has been the hotbed for the LWE. It is still densely forested and it is only now that accessibility is slowly improving.
Till about five years ago, almost 60% of the district was not connected by any form of roads and cellphone coverage was barely 20%. Now almost 80% of the tribal hamlets are connected and the cell network has improved to about 60%, said a senior officer from the district administration.
Ever since the Maoists had made its foray into the jungles of ASR district they had ruled the roost across all the nine mandals, and the Andhra-Odisha border was their strongest hold. But now with the security forces, which is a combination of CRPF, Greyhounds (AP) and Special Operations Group (Odisha), making deep inroads into their stronghold, the Maoists, including the top leaders, have left the district for safer places.
Several encounters by the security forces and large-scale surrenders both by the cadre and the leaders have also weakened them.
The recruitment has almost dried up and the welfare schemes are now reaching the tribals, even in the interior tribal hamlets. This has created a void for the Left Wing Extremists and they are finding it difficult to make a comeback.
Tight security
“Though the presence of Maoists has come down drastically, we are not leaving any scope for a breach in the peace and giving them a chance to make a reentry,” said Superintendent of Police Tuhin Sinha.
The AP Police have deployed about 109 road opening parties and 120 area domination parties, to take up intensified combing operations in deep pockets.
In ASR district, there are about 1,021 polling stations and out of which 610 have been identified as LWE sensitive. The security has been increased in all these stations, as per the ECI norms, said DIG (Visakha Range) Vishal Gunni.
To monitor the situation, the ASR police have set up 10 controls, which will be logged to about 15 drones that will be used for surveillance of deep pockets.
The district administration and the police are also providing free transport to enable the voters to reach their nearest polling stations.
Helicopter will be used to ferry the polling material and staff to Gurtedu polling station in Rampachodavarm, as it still continues to be an inaccessible area.
Last time, the turnout of voters was around 69% and the authorities expect it to be higher on May 13, when the State goes to polls.
Being a tribal constituency, the district has one MP seat (Araku) and three Assembly segments – Araku, Paderu and Rampachodavaram.
In the 2019 polls, the entire ASR district was swept by YSRCP. But this time things look a bit tight for the ruling party. BJP, as part of the seat-sharing in the alliance with TDP and JSP, has fielded its candidate for the Araku MP and Assembly seats
