Attacks show Naxals are frustrated by polling in Bastar: Raman

Condemning the two attacks by Maoists in which 14 persons including CRPF jawans and polling officials were killed this morning, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said here the ultras were frustrated by the large voter turnout in Bastar region two days ago.
The attacks once again revealed their brutal and inhuman face, he said.
Despite the Naxals' appeal to boycott, people of Bastar voted in large numbers on April 10 Lok Sabha election and showed their faith in the democracy, Singh said.
Naxals were frustrated by this and feared that they were losing their foothold in the region, he claimed.

The Chief Minister said polling personnel and security forces were returning after discharging election-related work which was "a national duty". The attack on them showed that Naxals were the biggest enemies of our democracy, he said.
Such incidents will not lower the morale of the government, people, polling personnel and security forces and they will fight confidently to drive out Naxalism from Bastar, he said, while condoling the families of the dead officials and CRPF personnel.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress alleged lapses in the security.
State Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel said state government had been lax in ensuring security to the polling officials who were returning after the April 10 election.

"State government was fully aware that a large number of polling staff and security personnel will be involved in the polling in the region. Even after that, the state government and its intelligence bureau did not formulate any elaborate strategy," Baghel alleged, while condoling the deaths.
Seven members of a polling party and five CRPF personnel were among the 14 killed as Naxals struck twice this morning in the span of less than an hour, blowing up a bus and later an ambulance in Bijapur and Bastar districts of Maoist-hit south Chhattisgarh.