By IANS,
Patna : An outlawed Maoist outfit has expelled one of its senior leaders in Bihar for contesting the Lok Sabha elections, defying the group’s poll boycott call.
Ranjan Yadav alias Dinkar-ji, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh special area committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was expelled for contesting from Chatra constituency in neighbouring Jharkhand, a statement issued by the outfit said Sunday.
Yadav is contesting as an independent from Chatra, which is one of the worst hit by Maoist insurgency.
The CPI-Maoist has declared Yadav as an anti-revolutionary, who has nothing to do with the outfit.
The Maoist rebels had last month called for a boycott of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in April-May.
The rebels have also directed their cadres to mobilise public support to boycott the polls.
A CPI-Maoist spokesman, identified only as Gopal, said in the statement that the government would deploy central paramilitary forces in large numbers to suppress the boycott call, “but we will give it a befitting reply this time”.
Bihar has sought four Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters from the central government for aerial surveillance, particularly in areas hit by Maoist insurgency, during the Lok Sabha elections.