Death of Uday, Aruna deepens leadership crisis among Maoists in AOB region

The Hindu

6 hours ago

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Greyhounds personnel, during a combing operation in the area near Akooru in Maredumilli forest of Alluri Sitharama Raju district, spotted a group of around 16 armed members of the banned CPI (Maoist). What followed was a fierce gun battle for about an hour, in which three Maoists were killed.
Among the deceased were Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, a Central Committee member and the secretary of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC), and Ravi Venka Chaitanya alias Aruna, a zonal committee member and secretary of the East Division, which controls the AOB region. The police recovered three AK 47s.
The death of Uday and Aruna is certainly a big blow to the Maoists, as the security forces presume it to be the endgame of the Left Wing extremists in the AOB region.
After the death of two top Maoist leaders Kudumula Ravi and Bakuri Venkataramana alias Ganesh, there was a leadership void in this region. Both were considered fierce tribal leaders. While Kudumula died of illness in 2016, Bakkuri was among the 30 Maoists killed in the Ramaguda exchange of fire in 2016.
It was after their death that Uday, Aruna and Chalapathi took charge of the AOB region.
There was a rumour that Uday was also killed in the Ramaguda encounter, but he survived and led the Maoists in the AOBSZC.
Hailing from Velishala in Telangana, Gajarla Ravi (58) alias Ganesh alias Anand alias Uday, joined the movement in 1990. He had completed his Intermediate and ITI and was an active member of RSU (Radical Student Union). After going underground, he was posted to AOB region to revive the movement.
Trained by Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, who was killed in May this year and Akkiraju Haragopal alias RK, who died of illness in 2021, Uday was supposed to be military strategist and also a leader who could recruit more tribal people.
Both his brothers—Gajarla Saraiah and Gajarla Ashok— were associated with the movement. Saraiah, a member of the Central Military Commission and Central Committee, was shot dead in Kanthalapally forest in Warangal in April 2008 while Ashok surrendered in 2015.
Considered a hardcore ideologist, Uday was said to be the trusted man of the senior leadership.
After a series of major encounters such as in Ramaguda in 2016 and Teegalametta in 2021, in which many leaders were killed, a string of surrenders and arrests of mid-level leaders that followed, the movement had died down by 2022.
Uday and Aruna, who were heading the operations, had moved to safer havens in Chhattisgarh. It was only in May 2024, after facing the heat in Chhattisgarh and with the idea of reviving the movement in the AOB, Aruna, Uday and Kakuri Pandana alias Jagan moved in with about 30 cadres.
Considered an educated and fierce fighter, Aruna was the wife of former Central Committee member Chalapathi, who was killed earlier this year. She hailed from Pendurthi area of Visakhapatnam.
Apart from her involvement in many cases, it is said that she had led the squad that killed former Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswar Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma, in September 2018, in Dumbriguda area of now ASR district.
On May 7, Pandana, the last of the tribal leaders from the AOB, was killed in an encounter. With the deaths of Uday and Aruna, there is hardly anyone to lead the movement, say security personnel associated with anti-Maoist operations.