Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) threat failed to deter 17,136 persons from enrolling their names in the voters’ list in the violence-affected Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra, where Maoists vehemently oppose polling, reports The Times of India on December 18. The encouraging statistics have come to fore during the ongoing special summary revisions of the electoral rolls. As many as 23,273 persons have filed various forms during the ongoing summary revision of the voters’ list seeking transfer, deletion, modification and alterations. Even the Police department is seeing the enrolment as a significant dent in support base for Maoists who in the past had issued serious threats to villagers against voting. The Maoists had also threatened villagers of cutting off their fingers if found to be inked. It was during a review in the mid-December that divisional commissioner Prajakta Lavangare-Verma urged Gadchiroli collector Sanjay Meena and his team to step up measures to finalize the voter’s list before the deadline of January 5. In a message divisional commissioner Prajakta, said, such robust numbers of new voters (17,136) in a District like Gadchiroli is reflecting a change towards positivity. Prajakta, who was in Gadchiroli for the review of the electoral roll revision and budgetary allocations and expenditures of District Planning Committee (DPC), has also instructed the district administration to step up Sveep (Systematic voters’ education and electoral participation) programs.