Thaindian News

Nagpur, Oct 15 (IANS) Suspected Maoists opened fire at four polling stations in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district where re-polling was completed Thursday, police said.
Maoists opened indiscriminate fire at the Aeetalli polling station in Kotni sub-district, said Additional Superintendent of Police M. K. Sharma.

“There were nearly 200 security personnel and we retaliated with firing in their direction. The attackers later withdrew from the area and polling was conducted peacefully,” Sharma told IANS.

Later in the afternoon, the Maoists again started firing at the same polling station as the voting ended and the poll officials were preparing to leave. Sharma said the security forces returned fire and escorted the poll team to safety.

Similar incidents of firing took place at polling stations in Burgi in Kotni sub-district, Tadgaon in Bhamragad sub-district and Korchi on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, Sharma said.

Sharma said all the EVMs and around 100 poll officials have been safely escorted by road or airlifted to the district headquarters.

The Election Department had ordered re-polling in 22 polling stations in Aheri and Amori assembly constituencies. The assembly elections were held in the state Oct 13.

Besides the 22 polling stations in Gadchiroli, re-poll took place at one polling station in Ichalkaranji, where the voting was cancelled owing to a technical problem, and at one polling station in Nagpur where the EVMs had malfunctioned.