Election Commission has created quite a scare among political parties and their candidates through its strict implementation of rules on upper limit of expenses on campaigns and on defacement of public and private property. The candidates are so scared of returning officers appointed by the commission that they are taking written permission from house owners to write appeals on their walls. Even for pitching their party flags on roof tops, they are seeking verbal approval of the property owners.

In municipality ward 11 and ward 12, located on the outskirts of Dalli rajhara and inhabited by people working in iron ore and manganese mines, the parties have taken written approvals from house owners before painting their slogans and symbols on their walls. A number of residents, whose outer walls support political graffiti, confirmed to this correspondent that parties took their signatures in a notebook before painting their symbols. This has happened after returning officers in Balod District issued notices to a number of candidates including those from major political parties on complaints of local residents whose walls were defaced without their permission.

The political parties are making extra efforts to ensure that their candidates do not stretch beyond the Rs 16 lakh limit set by the election commission for each candidate on an assembly seat. This is the reason why major political rallies and meetings addressed by star campaigners do not exhibit photographs of local candidates on posters. The campaigners also avoid making a direct appeal to the public in the candidate’s name. If a photograph of a local candidate is put on the stage in a meeting, and campaigners there make an appeal in the name of that candidate the expenses incurred will be added into the election expenses of the candidate.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh ended up adding at least a few lakhs to account of Hori Lal Rawte, BJP candidate from Dondilohara Assembly Constituency, when he mentioned the latter in his speech several times on November 9, in Dondi, a town about 10 kms from Dalli rajhara. Besides, the meeting displayed pictures of Rawte on the stage. Uma Bharati avoided committing a similar mistake in a meeting in Saja (Durg) earlier this week. She did not name the candidate and simply told people to vote for Kamal Chhap (BJP’s electoral symbol lotus).

Apart from keeping watch on expenses and other poll violations by political parties and their candidates, the district authorities and police are leaving no stone turned to make sure that the candidates have no cash to distribute among the poor. The police are checking vehicles at night to see whether they are carrying cash of Rs 50,000 or more. The Commission has ordered that all such cash must be explained.

Campaign against Naxalites
District police in Bastar, Narayanpur and Balod have launched a major campaign against left extremists before the polls scheduled for November 11 and 19. The police in Balod have put up posters at several places including Dondi to expose naxalites’ anti-people activities.

The posters headlined ‘Naxliyon se punche aisa karenge adivasiyon ka vikas?’ (ask naxalites is this how they will develop tribals?) display pictures of atrocities carried out by Maoists against poor people. The five pictures include a massacre of villagers by red ultras, forcible entry of armed Maoists into a school and a collapsed government building bombed by the terrorists.

The police have also put up a board whereby the naxalites are asked to surrender to the police. The board displays two telephone numbers. While 18 seats of Bastar, Narayanpur and other naxalism-affected areas will go to polls on November 11, the remaining 72 will vote on November 19.

Woman Power
Congress is invoking female power to wrest Dondilohara Assembly Constituency from Bharatiya Janata Party. The party’s candidate Anila Bhedia, daughter-in-law of former Rajya Sabha MP and MLA Jhumuk Lal Bhedia and sister-in-law of former Congress MLA Domendra Bhedia, is telling women voters that only her party has fielded a woman candidate from the constituency.

Anila’s associates including Dalli rajhara Municipal Corporation President Mukti Guha Niyogi, can be heard saying, “ashirwad dehi dai behenwa. Vidhayak banwa kuchh kar sakat hon (bless her sisters. She can do something after becoming MLA).” Dondilohara assembly constituency has around 1.9 lakh voters out of which around 50 per cent are women voters.

Anila, who is a post graduate in Social Science, is pitted against BJP’s Hori Lal Rawte, a forest officer-turned-politician and Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha’s Janak Lal Thakur who represented the Dondilohara Constituency in Madhya Pradesh Assembly twice in the past. An independent candidate Anita Kumaiti is the other woman candidate in the fray on the seat.

Candidates chase gods/goddesses
The candidates of Dondilohara Assembly Constituency visited Danteshwari temple in Thema Burj Village, situated about 18 kms from Dalli rajhara. The occasion was the organisation of first post-harvest mela (maddhai in local parlance) in the village.

Almost all candidates including Anila Bhedia and Hori Lal Rawte turned up in the fair to enlist support of people and seek blessings of the local goddess. The organisation of the mela will be followed in many other villages in the coming days. Maddhai is like Baishakhi and is celebrated with much gusto and fanfare.