By IANS,
Raipur : Maoists are looking to target VIPs and VVIPs in Chhattisgarh in the run-up to the Lok Sabha poll to get global publicity, a senior police official said Friday, citing fresh intelligence inputs.
Maoists, who have announced a boycott of the polls and asked people to stay away from the election process, have stepped up violence since filing of nominations began in the state March 23. According to a senior official at the police headquarters here, the leftist insurgents are keen to target important political figures coming to the state next month to campaign.
The state goes to polls for all its 11 seats April 16 – the first phase of the five phase polling for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country.
“In view of Maoist threat to VIPs and VVIPs, we have sent an advisory to SPs (superintendents of police) in all the 18 districts to do advance security liaison with the local politicians and ensure security measures must be followed during poll campaign or public rallies,” Inspector General (Intelligence) D.M. Awasthi told IANS.
The advisory, sent early this week, has also asked SPs to personally look after the security arrangements during visits of VIPs in their area, he added.
The state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says its prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and about 10 other central leaders will address a series of public meetings in the state in the first and the second week of April.
From the Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi are expected to address a few rallies in the state, including in the southern restive Bastar region where the Maoists have been running a parallel government since the late 1980s.