The campaign for Chhattisgarh assembly elections is now about to gain momentum. The possibility of Naxalite attacks in these elections is also being taken into consideration. After the killing of four BJP leaders by Naxalites in Bastar in the last few months, the central government is on alert. The central government has provided ‘X’ category security to 24 local party leaders ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Officials in Bastar said that the Union Home Ministry has issued orders regarding X category CRPF security to 24 local officials belonging to the BJP.
Officials aware of this development said that the leaders who have been provided X category security are from Maoist-affected Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma and Kondagaon in Bastar region. Prima facie it seems that this decision has been taken keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections in Bastar region. A senior police officer posted in Bastar region said- Generally the categories are provided by either the state government or the central government.
The state government has already provided security to more than 70 people in Bastar region, including BJP, Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI) officials and social workers. The security review committee of the state government assesses the security threats to individuals and assigns security categories varying from Z+, Z, Y+, Y and X category. Z+ is the highest and X is the lowest grade of protection. The order to provide security will be implemented in the next few days.
It is noteworthy that in February, Naxalites had killed three people who were BJP officials in this area. In February, Sagar Sahu (47), a former BJP official, was shot dead in Narayanpur district. Two days later, former sarpanch Ramdhar Alami, who was an active member of the BJP for the last 15 years, was murdered. This week, BJP Mandal President Neelkanth Kakkam was shot dead by Maoists in Awapalli area of Bijapur district. On February 21, a former BJP sarpanch was murdered by Naxalites in Bijapur district.