Shrunk to the bones by tuberculosis, Galib Munna sits on a charpoy outside his hut staring at the freshly painted school that could turn into a polling station on April 19 — the first in this village in the Bastar parliamentary seat since 2013.
There is nothing to indicate that the school is a polling booth, but it is the only concrete structure large enough to host one at Palnar village in Bijapur district.
Election authorities don’t paint the customary poll information on booths in villages such as Palnar to prevent them from being blown up by members of the banned CPI (Maoist), which boycotts elections.
Munna said he didn’t know about the polls or whether his name was on the voters’ list. Like most of his neighbours, he doesn’t have a voter card. He also claimed ignorance about a recent controversial encounter between security forces and Maoists in the vicinity in which 13 rebels were killed.
The village is connected to the main road by a dirt track. Five checkposts dot the stretch between the village and Bijapur, the district headquarters. The 15km main road is called “Khooni Rasta” (Blood Path) because of the gun battles that have taken place here over the years.
The CRPF’s 222 battalion checks IDs and takes pictures of the visitors to the village, which is part of a cluster of tribal hamlets. No campaign parties have visited Palnar.
Constables ask visitors to watch their step as it is easy for the insurgents to plant a landmine on an unmetalled road although it is guarded and regularly checked. A helipad has been built beside the CRPF camp and may be used to ferry the polling party.
Children with two bags of char berries play at the school building in Palnar. Protein-rich and expensive chironji nuts extracted from char berries are found in Bastar’s jungles. Pheroze L Vincent
Munna’s family of seven was shifted along with most of the villagers to Gangaloor — around 5km away — during the Salwa Judum, a vigilante movement to fight the Maoists two decades ago. They have gradually returned to the village but the security situation is such that the sarpanch and the secretary of the panchayat stay in settlements far behind the shifting frontlines of insurgency.
All of Munna’s four children have dropped out of school. His 19-year-old son Dinesh works in a chicken shop in Bijapur seven days a week for Rs 300 per day, a spot to sleep and three meals a day. He is home for the mahua harvest, which coincides with Navratri when meat sales drop.
The fruit drying in their courtyard can yield up to 60 litres of mahua spirit, half of which is meant for personal consumption. The rest will be sold to the troops for around Rs 1,000, Dinesh told The Telegraph.
“I don’t know about voting,” Dinesh said. “I saw campaigning in Bijapur but I thought it was only for the city people. Here, I don’t know anyone who has voted although some may vote this time.”
Families this reporter met in the village have not received voter slips yet.
A truck allegedly torched by Maoists last year lies abandoned on the Bijapur-Gangaloor Road, known as Khooni Rasta, in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar on Sunday. Pheroze L Vincent
Palnar’s polling booth was shifted to Cherpal, around 5km away, in 2014. It clocked a turnout of 12.52 per cent — the state average was 76.31 — in the Assembly polls last year. Some 611 voters are registered in the booth, now restored to its original location for the upcoming polls.
A CRPF trooper posted in Palnar said: "It would be a success even if 50 of them come to vote."
Most of the male voters are returning from the chilli harvest in Telangana on polling day. "They will sit and decide if we should vote," Dinesh said.
When it comes to "vikas", Palnar residents are the biggest losers. All homes have solar panels but no electricity as none of the panels functioned for more than three months.
"Jaggery, meant to be a free ration here, is sold for Rs 20 a kg by the ration shop," Shanti, a resident, said. Contrary to popular belief that the tribals here use jaggery only to brew liquor, Shanti uses it to feed her baby.
None of the women this reporter spoke to get the government dole meant for them. None of the elderly residents get pension. Water from the hand pumps — when they function — is brackish. None of the Gond tribal children this reporter met has community certificates, necessary to get reservation benefits.
Munna’s sister Padma said: "If elections can bring some good, can you please ask the government for a hospital here? Going to the health centre in Cherpal is expensive. We took my brother once, but can’t afford to take him as many times as the doctor asked us to."