NEW DELHI: Requests have been pouring in from politicians of Maoist-hit states for upgrading their security cover in the wake of the May 25 Chhattisgarh incident that left 29 people, including Congress leaders, dead in the daring Naxalite attack.

So far, the Centre has received such requests from over a dozen politicians, including the new Congress chief of Chhattisgarh Charan Das Mahant, and family members of the slain party leader Mahendra Karma. Karma’s wife and four sons made their requests on Friday, when they met Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde here.

Das, MP from Korba and Union minister of state for food processing and agriculture, may be considered for ‘Z+’ category of security, which is the highest category having 32 security personnel including house guards. Similarly, security of former Jharkhand chief ministers Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda may also be upgraded to ‘Z+’.

MLAs and local leaders of Congress, BJP and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) are also among those who have formally requested Shinde for upgrading their security. All the requests had come in from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha in the past fortnight.

"Most of those who requested for security citing threats from Maoists have already in the list of respective state protectee, but their requests are being processed whether they actually need ‘upgraded’ security cover keeping in mind threat perception," said a senior home ministry official.

He said the respective state governments had already taken decisions and upgraded security of local politicians. The home ministry is processing their requests and will extend such leaders the adequate cover when they visit the national Capital as well, he added.

The West Bengal government has taken the lead in upgrading security cover of as many as six district-level leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress. All of them are now getting ‘Z’ category (having 22 security personnel, including house guards) as against the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ categories security that were given to them before the May 25 incident.

"The ongoing panchayat polls appears to have prompted the state government to quickly acted on such requests," said an official here, adding other states too have paid heed to similar demands.

Jharkhand, which is currently under the President’s rule, has moved a step forward by activating a special monitoring cell within the state police Special Branch to monitor the movement of leaders — irrespective of their political affiliations — in the Maoist-dominated areas.

After meeting Shinde, Karma’s kin said they continued to receive threats from the Red ultras who asked them to leave their ancestral place and demanded security.

Accompanied by Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, Karma’s son Deepak said, "We want security. The Naxalites asked us to leave our ancestral place in Bastar and warned of dire consequences if we do not follow their diktat. The home minister assured us that he would examine their demands sympathetically and do the needful as early as possible".

Union home secretary RK Singh and director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Asif Ibrahim were also present during the meeting where Karma’s sons are learnt to have expressed their views on how to handle the Maoist menace in Chhattisgarh.