Despite perhaps the heaviest security arrangements for polling in a Naxal-hit district ever, the Maoists cast a pall over voting in Gadchiroli district on Tuesday.

They managed to attack eight polling booths at various places along the 350-km length of the district, starting with the first attack on a booth in Etapalli tehsil at 5.30 am, and ensured that officials couldn’t reach 22 of the 839 polling stations. Polling will now be held in these booths on Thursday.

Authorities admitted that while close to 10,000 armed cops and paramilitary forces, plus four choppers, had been deployed for polling, Maoist movement was noticed

every 10 km.

The attack on the Bondai booth in Korchi tehsil, which Maoists had encircled, was repulsed after a 30-minute exchange of fire, with MI-17 choppers flown in as reinforcement.

The skirmish at Khamtala lasted two hours. While there were no reports of injuries to any securitymen in Bondai, reports are still awaited from Khamtala.

Officials said the presence of choppers helped in preventing the two attacks from turning into another Lahiri, where 17 cops were killed by Maoists last week.

At Maseli in Korchi district, there were acrimonious scenes between the police and a team of local journalists, who accused the cops of escorting voters forcibly to booths at gunpoint, to use them as human shields in the event of a Naxal attack.

Asked about the 22 booths where polling couldn’t be held, District Collector Atul Patne said the decision to postpone the voting was “predecided”.

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