Maoists at their weakest: Key leaders killed, top bodies depleted, daily surrenders

Indian Express

5 hours ago

Following a series of major setbacks recently, the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) is currently at its weakest, according to intelligence officials, with the numerical strength of its top leadership bodies having significantly depleted in the years since the peak of the insurgency in the late 2000s.
The group's Politburo, its highest decision-making body, has shrunk to just three members: Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu, Thippiri Thirupathi alias Devuji, and Misir Besra alias Sagar. At the height of the insurgency, the Politburo had at least 11-12 members. The Central Committee members have also whittled down to 17 from 42 in 2007-08.
In recent months, security forces have stepped up operations against the Maoists, targeting key leaders. CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Kesav Rao, alias Basavaraju, was killed on May 21 along with several Maoist cadres, and on June 5, key Central Committee member Tentu Laxmi Narasimha Chalam, alias Sudhakar, was killed. This was followed by the killing on June 6 of another senior Maoist operative, Mailarapu Adelu alias Bhaskar, who was a Telangana State Committee member.
After the death of top Maoist leader Basavaraju, Sudhakar was one of the most influential figures in the group, a senior intelligence official from Telangana said. Sudhakar, who was from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh, had ideological heft within the party and was also a key strategist. 'He was part of the peace talks held in 2004 in Hyderabad. After the talks, he went underground again,' the official said.
Sudhakar was studying to become an Ayurveda doctor in Vijayawada when he was recruited by the People's War Group, a Maoist outfit. 'He was always known as the Ayurveda doctor,' an official said. These were times when the party had several subgroups under it, including those for women and urban members. 'These outfits are dysfunctional currently,' the official said.
Now, the overall Maoist armed strength across the country has shrunk to 1,300 armed members from 1,700 just two years ago. This means that around 400 armed operatives have either died or been arrested in the last two years.
This comes amid an aggressive push by security forces, especially in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, against the Maoists. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set a deadline of March 2026 to eradicate Left Wing Extremism in the country.
Officials also link the group's decline to a lack of communication between its different armed and unarmed factions. 'Their internal communication has completely collapsed because of the security offensive against them. The leadership is cut off from the rest of the party, and even small units of the party (known as dalams) are cut off from one another,' a Telangana official said.
Moreover, surrenders have been happening almost on a daily basis, especially in Chhattisgarh, the official said.
'On any given day, there are at least four-five people who are surrendering and giving up vital intelligence about the outfit's commanders and patrols,' the official said.
In effect, the Maoists have not just become vulnerable, but are at their weakest, officials said.
'They have reached such a stage that they could not protect their general secretary from getting killed. This is a party that boasts of being the oldest guerrilla outfit in South Asia,' a senior intelligence official said.
Unlike earlier, the group has also not been able to mobilise to 'strike back', the officer pointed out. 'Usually, they unleash violence after their top leaders are killed. Not a single incident has so far been reported.' Maoists are also failing to garner public support, the official said.
The Maoist party has called a bandh on June 10 to protest the killings of its leaders.