An issue called Salwa Judum

Dantewada: : The leader of opposition in the Chhattisgarh assembly, Mahendra Karma — more famous in these parts as the frontline leader of the anti-Naxalite Salwa Judum movement — is facing an uphill task in his efforts to score a hat-trick in the assembly polls from this tribal constituency in South Bastar.

The CPI’s decision to field its young firebrand leader, Manish Kunjam, to take on the Congress veteran on his home turf has made the contest both tough and interesting. BJP nominee Bhairav Mandavi, also in the fray, is struggling to add a saffron dimension to the electoral fight.

But the Salwa Judum has overshadowed all other issues in this constituency, with an electorate of more than 1.73 lakh. While Karma and Mandavi are protagonists of the anti-Naxalite movement, Kunjam and his party have been opposing the campaign. The CPI claims that the campaign has uprooted people from their homes and resulted in large-scale killings of innocent people, caught in the conflict between Maoist rebels and Salwa Judum activists.

With the first phase of polling in the state round the corner, electioneering is still low key in this constituency. Neither the candidates nor their supporters have been moving into the more remote villages to canvass support in view of the threat from Maoists, who have given a boycott call. By and large, tribal voters remain indifferent towards polls, engaging themselves in routine chores and betting in cockfights. Two BJP leaders have been killed and a number of vehicles have been set ablaze.

Karma has been on the Naxalite hit-list for more than a decade — ever since he launched a ‘people’s awareness campaign’ in 1989 against the Naxalites that morphed into the Salwa Judum. “No one can dispute the fact that Naxalism was a curse not only for Bastar but also for the entire country. People are fed up with violence and bloodshed. Whatever the criticism, I have reached a point of no return and will stick to my struggle against Naxalites,” he told The Indian Express.

Interestingly, Karma was first elected to the assembly of undivided Madhya Pradesh in the early 1980s as a candidate of the CPI. Later, he moved to the Congress, became a minister and emerged as one of its top-rung leaders in the region.

Karma’s main opponent, CPI candidate Manish Kunjam, president of the Adivasi Mahasabha, has in fact shifted from his home constituency of Konta to Dantewada to take on Karma. During the last few years, Kunjam has made efforts to mobilise the local population in the entire South Bastar region against alleged Salwa Judum atrocities. “Tribals cannot live in cages such as relief camps,” he told The Indian Express. Kunjam has also been at the forefront of agitations mounted in the name of farmers whose land was being acquired for industrial development projects.

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