CPI-Maoist calls for boycott of general elections, warns people not to vote

Patna/Ranchi, Mar 18 (ANI): The Bihar-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh special area committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has called for a boycott of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.

The Maoists issued a press release, which said that the coming Lok Sabha elections would give an opportunity to the political parties to misrule the country for another five years.

The banned outfit predicted that the next political mandate would promote hunger and repression and increase unemployment, causing miseries to the common people.

The Maoists have gone to the extent of painting the walls in some parts of Jharkhand warning people not to vote in the polls.

CPI-Maoist spokesman Gopal stated that they would give a befitting reply to the state government, which has deployed paramilitary forces in large numbers to suppress the boycott call.

The Maoist rebels had used pressure tactics in the 2004 general elections in Jharkhand by hitting the voters. However, the voting percentage in the state's rural areas was calculated to be more than 55 per cent.

In impoverished Jharkhand, where insurgents say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, over 1,350 people have been killed in Maoist-related violence over the last seven years.(ANI)