Jailed activist throws his hat in poll ring

  A local court in East Midnapore district permitted Chhatradhar to contest the Assembly elections from Jhargram, subject to clearance by the Election Commission.

Mahato, who is presently lodged in Midnapore central jail and the convenor of PCAPA, allegedly a front organisation of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), sought the judicial nod to contest polls from Jhargram.  Chhatradhar's move has a much wider ramification, coming as it does closely after the election boycott call given by  Maoists. The boycott call has taken the political parties by surprise as even a month back, the banned outfit indicated just the opposite, sending signals that it would want people to participate in the poll process to ‘restore the voice of democracy.’

 According to observers, Mahato’s move smacks of more than a single strategy; it could be his game to execute pressure on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to press for withdrawal of central forces from the rebel-infested areas, a demand that she herself has been making for sometime now. On the other, Chhatradhar's decision could be interpreted as a general rebuff to the CPI(M) allegation of a Trinamool-Maoist nexus.