Marandi says death threat; Maoist document concurs

Ranchi, New Delhi/ March 13

Former chief Babulal Marandi on Thursday said in Dumka that his political rivals are out to kill him and claimed, without naming anyone, that a supari has been given in his name.

Marandi was talking about a clear and present danger - a March 12 Indian Express report had said that 12 political leaders of the region have been targeted by Maoists this election. Quoting from a document prepared on instructions from the Central Committee of the CPI-Maoist and seized from Bihar's Munger on February 3, the report went on to say that Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha is one of the targets.

"I am not taking names, but a political leader here has given supari to kill me," Babulal told a press conference. "The entire state has Naxal presence.... I don't have sufficient security cover," he added. His son Anup was gunned down by alleged Maoists in October 2007.

The Maoist document talks of the 12 leaders to be targeted two-syllable, coded terms. However, there are two that are interesting in the context of Marandi's claims on Thursday - the second and third names on the list are "Babu" and "Nunu." Marandi has a son named Nunu. In fact, after the attack on his brother at an event in which he was also present, Nunu had told the Indian Express that the Maoists had come asking for him.

The document talks of two strategies for the general elections. The first is the political, whose main instrument is the boycott of the whole process. The second is the military strategy. "The BJP, Congress and JVM should be targeted militarily," goes the document. "The campaign vehicles of these parties should be put on fire. Selected politicians should be targeted and even the campaign vehicles of alliance parties should be targeted," it adds.

However, the document insists that there should be no attack on civilians on voting day.

JVM's general secretary Pradeep Yadav said that other parties were jealous of Marandi's steady rise. "Our party has been going from strength to strength and people are jealous of that. When our leader said that he was being targeted by politicians, he also meant to point out that even if the Maoists are targeting him, it is because some politicians are behind them," he said.

Jharkhand DGP Rajeev Kumar said that the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is in possession of the document, has not yet shared it with the state police. "Let mister Marandi give us a complaint about his insecurity, we will look into that," he said.