Bijapur: More than 24 hours after the first phase of Assembly elections concluded in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, a group of 200 officials on election duty have not reached back to the District Election Control Room in Naxal-affected Bijapur district.
The first phase of polls which saw a high voter turnout of 71.48 per cent on Tuesday was marred with Naxalite violence and a call for a boycott. Authorities sensing the threat held the polling in separate time slots.
While Bijapur recorded the lowest (40.98 per cent) turnout, sources said that more than 200 polling personnel of the polling team had not yet reported back to the election control room. Many of them had been dropped at the polling locations via a chopper due to security reasons.
Bijapur Superintendent of Police Anjaneya Vaishnav while speaking to ETV Bharat said they are looking into the matter whether any polling personnel have been abducted by Naxals. He said the security of the polling staff was their prerogative. "At around 76 places, we had dropped the polling parties via choppers. We are responsible for their security. We will keep you updated whenever we get more information about it," the SP said.
The first phase of elections witnessed multiple Naxalite incidents. Four security personnel were injured in an encounter with Naxalites in the Chintagufa police station area of Sukma district, while a CRPF commando sustained injuries in an IED blast near Tondamarka camp in the same district during separate area domination operations to ensure security during the polls, police said.
Exchanges of fire also took place between Naxalites and security personnel -- one each in Narayanpur, Bijapur and Kanker districts. However, no harm was reported to security personnel in those incidents, police said.
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