Amidst the threat of attacks by naxal forces that looms over the Telangana assembly elections 2018, a statement has been issued in the name of CPI-Maoist’s Telangana State Secretary Haribhushan that calls for people to fight for a ‘democratic Telangana’.
Maoists have asked people to boycott of the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections and told them not to participate in the “fake elections”. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has issued this statement as it does not approve of policies of all the parties.
The statement also contained criticism for the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) saying it has not fulfilled promises made in the last Assembly elections. It also blamed the growing public resentment for which Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao went for early elections by dissolving the Assembly nine months before its term was to expire.
The CPI Maoists’ state secretary Haribushuan while lashing out at Grand Alliance or Maha Kutami and the Bahujan left Front (BLF) said that the alliance of the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is pointless. He further said that he believes that parties like the CPI and the Telangana Jana Samithi are joining hands with the Congress and the TDP only to mislead the votes. The statement also blamed the left parties for only focusing on gaining power and overlooking people’s problems. He also alleged that K Chandrasekhar Rao is trying to establish a dynastic rule in Telangana and had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Election Commissioner, O P Rawat before dissolving the assembly.
Though the notorious activities of Maoists has considerably been low in the state over the last decade, the recent killing of a legislator and a former legislator in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh has put the security agencies on a high alert in Telangana as well. They killed Araku MLA, Bidari Sarweswar Rao and former MLA, Siveri Soma in Vishakhapatnam. Hinting that they may be preparing more incidents as such the Intelligence agencies have reportedly alerted politicians in Telangana of any possible strikes by the Maoists during the election campaign.
All the police stations are on high alert as there are possibilities of Naxals disrupting the election process. The Naxals have been looking to revive their movement in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While in Telangana, they would look to target the TRS, in Andhra Pradesh their focus has been on the TDP leaders.
According to the intelligence bureau, the Naxalites are planning a resurgence following a series of operations that were undertaken in the hills of Anantapur and Nallamalla forests to wipe them out. The Naxalites then scattered towards Odisha and the bordering areas of Karnataka.