Bijapur: Panchayat elections in Naxal-hit Bijapur district was a show of the voters' grit, determination and unshakable faith in democracy. The villagers traversed long distances, as far as 70 km in some cases, through forest, hills and rough terrain to vote at their nearest polling booths in the second phase of panchayat elections in Chhattisgarh.
Residents of Sendra, Badekakede and Edapally villages near Indravati National Park voted at Bhopalpatnam had to travel several kilometres to exercise their franchise. The administration had set up the polling booths at the block headquarters owing to Maoist threat in the region. As many as six polling booths of Sendra were shifted to Bhopalpatnam. However, this did not deter the villagers particularly those from Sendra who travelled around 70 km on foot and on two-wheelers from casting their votes at the block headquarters. Santosh Gurla along with his wife Priyanka and two children left Sendra on Wednesday morning and reached Bhopalpatnam by evening. They stayed the night at Bhopalpatnam and queued up to cast their votes the next morning. Like them, several others including Ramesh Gota, Venkatesh Taladi of Sendra Basti reached their respective polling booths at Bhopalpatnam by travelling on their bikes and on foot to cast their votes on Thursday. Kavre Shankar, a local said the government must build roads, provide electricity and jobs to people from the region to change the identity of the region.
Polling officer Yalam Shankar said voters travelled on their own to cast their votes across the district which reflects in the voting percentage which has increased this time. "The locals now realise the importance of their votes," he said. After the era of Salwa Judum in 2005, people residing near Indravati National Park were settled in Bhopalpatnam. The then collector R Prasanna had established Sendra Basti near Nakapara in Bhopalpatnam in 2009.
Sendra near Indravati Tiger Reserve is considered the core area of Naxalites. On February 9, a major encounter took place between security forces and Naxalites on the hills of Tekmetta in which two security personnel were martyred and 31 Naxalites killed. Meanwhile. BJP made a clean sweep in Bhopalpatnam. While Dinesh Made won from Kerpe, Reena Bhagat won from Wadla. Similarly, Neelam Ganpat won from Lingapur and Tanuja Kumar from Timed. Ganesh Pottam won from Arjunalli and Sarita Kudem from Cherpalli. Rahul Yalam registered victory in the elections from Pamagal.
