Peaceful polling expected in Alluri Sitharama Raju district as Maoist extremism is on the wane, say officials

Residents of Alluri Sitharama Raju district prepare for peaceful voting after years of Maoist threats and violence.

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.