Click to play videoChhattisgarh is in the middle of a decisive election. Despite Maoist violence, 55 per cent have already voted in 39 constituencies in the first phase of polling, and 35 per cent have cast their ballots in the 12 Maoist-affected constituencies.
The BJP and the Congress are locked in a close contest, but the CPI could upset equations in Maoist-hit areas.
And it's the vote of the tribals - who form over a third of the state's population - that could tilt the balance.
Most of the tribals live in one region - Bastar, the heart of India's war with itself. Violence involving Maoist guerillas has killed hundreds of villagers here in recent years. And as the state votes to elect a new government, it will also pass judgement on the way its politicians have handled the Naxalite problem.
On the spot
With a .303 bore rifle, for a salary of Rs 2,100, Rama closely watches bare-bodied visitors at this checkpost in Dornapal. The weekly village fair is underway, and Rama, a Special Police Officer, is checking for signs of trouble, looking for Maoists or Maoist sympathisers, not sparing anyone.
“I will have to look for a job when I grow up, I don't know what I will do,” he says.
Rama is part of the Salwa Judum, a government-backed vigilante group formed in 2005 to take on the Maoists, and now one of the most important issues in this election. Named after the Gondi term for purification rites, the Salwa Judum comprises local villagers, put on the frontline of the government's war against the Maoists.
The government insists the Salwa Judum is a spontaneous homegrown movement. But in the last three years the conflict has only gotten worse.
At least 70,000 tribal villagers were displaced, and had to live as refugees by the roadside. Many have fled to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa.
The architect of the Salwa Judum, Mahendra Karma, the Congress MLA from Dantewada in South Chhattisgarh, is standing for re-election. But he refuses to answer any questions about the vigilante group he helped create.
“I don't know (how many people are still in the camps), I am not an accountant, Why do you want to ask questions only about the Salwa Judum. Shut down your camera and get out of here,” Karma thundered.
Puran used to be a farmer, but for three years, he has not ploughed any land. The Salwa Judum was the result of a cosy handshake between the BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh and the opposition Congress, when both parties agreed for once on the tactic to use tribal against tribal.
Puran had then left his village, Gorgunda, certain that the Maoists would be defeated in a month or two. But the months have stretched into years. Now, Puran says, he fears he can never go back.
“There is no way I can go back, the threat from Maoists is too immense,” he says.
Walking along the lanes of the Judum camp, one hears a common story: we left our houses thinking that the Maoists will go back but of anything their presence has only grown stronger. What were meant to be temporary structures have now acquired colours of permanence.
Whose side to take?
Once the largest relief camp in Bastar, the Dornapal camp is now almost deserted. But there are no neutral villagers living here any more - those who have stayed back are special police officers, former gram panchayat sarpanches and their relatives, the very class the Maoists target.
“They killed my brother for nothing. He had just gone back to the village to look at his house. Why was he killed? There is no way that I can go back,” says a Special Police Officer.
Polling booths have come up inside relief camps set up and supported by the ruling BJP government. And that's why locals feel the BJP will have an advantage in this election.
Lakhs of voters across the Maoist-affected areas of Bastar, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Kanker voted in the first phase of the election, risking their lives to make their vote count, rejecting the Maoist's call to boycott the poll.
CNN-IBN met Comrade Sonu of CPI Politburo
CNN-IBN: Is there any demand within the party to take part in democracy like the CPI (ML) in Bihar ?
Sonu: No, not in our party. This is not democracy. Parliamentary form of governance? We do not accept that as democracy. We are with the people. We will die for the people, we will work for the people. We are the servants of the people.
But for many villages, the election was almost non-existent. With torn-down schools, soldiers in health centres, Kanker Lanka is a village scarred by conflict.
No politicians campaigned here, no party set up shop. For the last three years, only some of the village's oldest residents have dared to live here. Now, Maoists are asking people to return to their villages.
And villagers like Madvi Lakha are relying on the presence of security forces to make the dangerous journey back home. Three years in the Salwa Judum, Lakha says, have shown him the bitter truth.
“On both sides adivasis get killed, on the side of the Salwa Judum as well as on the side of the Naxals. Naxals and security forces flourish,” Lakha says.
Across Bastar, we heard the same things said about the Salwa Judum: that counter terror has only led to more terror, that it isn't the job of the tribals to fight Maoists, that tribal villagers have been the worst-affected in the last three years.
Some said their anger against the government would make them vote for the Congress. Others like Kisi Mangru, whose brother was killed by the Maoists, said they would vote as they were told.
Most families in Kankar Lanka live below the poverty line. And like almost all of Bastar, families have become even poorer after the conflict.
Target: Schools
Maoists target schools because they believe that these will be used by paramilitary forces. Indeed the buidings that are still standing are occupied by the security forces. In this war between the Maoists and the governmnet, primary school children are paying a heavy price: the price of their education...
Manish Kunjam brings up the Salwa Judum in every campaign speech he makes. The CPI candidate from Dantewada has questioned the Salwa Judum since the time it was founded.
The CPI is certain it will gain ground in Chhattisgarh this election. And Kunjam says the tribal anger against the Salwa Judum will be a major factor.
No election has ever been as important for tribals in Chhattisgarh, with two ideologies fighting to win the tribal vote and a third warning them to stay away.
Fear and alienation are the defining forces of life here. People who live in the camps go to cultivate their field, sometimes not knowing whether they will return or not.
The Maoists have given a call to boycott the elections, the presence of security forces has meant that at least those in the camps will vote. But what about the rest?
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