A BTech who opted for radical activism, plotted Jhiram Ghati massacre
HYDERABAD: An engineering graduate who once trained in explosives with LTTE and roamed Dandakaranya forests of Chhattisgarh flanked by his "Company 7" guard, AK-47 slung over shoulder, was killed Wednesday in a gunfight with security forces.
CPI(Maoist) general secretary
Nambala Keshava Rao
alias Basavaraju, 70, was the highest-ranking Maoist leader ever killed in action. His death in Maad division of Chhattisgarh, a rebel stronghold deep inside forests, is being hailed by security officials as a watershed in the country's decades-long fight against left-wing extremism.
Basavaraju, fluent in Telugu, Hindi, English, and Gondi, came from Jiyannapeta village in Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district.
Son of a middle-class Kalinga family, he earned a BTech degree from REC Warangal (now NIT). Campus politics and a 1979 clash with RSS members drew him to radical activism. Arrested and later out on bail, he vanished in 1980.
His early revolutionary years saw him mobilising tribal peasants along the Andhra-Odisha border, building Rythu Coolie Sangham and initiating armed struggle with three country-made pistols. By the mid-1980s, he had joined People's War Group and steadily rose as chief military strategist.
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Between 1989 and 1990, he is believed to have undergone explosives training with LTTE in Sri Lanka - an expertise he passed on to Maoist cadres. As head of CPI(Maoist)'s "Central Military Commission" from 2001, Basavaraju directed high-profile attacks - including the 2003 Alipiri blast targeting then Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu and the 2013 Jhiram Ghati ambush that killed senior Congress politician Mahendra Karma and 25 others.
After the 2004 merger of People's War with Maoist Communist Centre, Basavaraju climbed the ranks, eventually succeeding Muppala Lakshmana Rao (Ganapathy) as general secretary in 2018. Unlike Ganapathy's ideological approach, Basavaraju focused on militarisation and consistently rejected peace talks unless preceded by a complete govt withdrawal from Maoist zones.
He remained based in Maad forests, directing operations and keeping active links with central and regional units.
Intelligence agencies claim he also acted as a conduit to international extremist outfits, allegedly traveling to Turkiye, Peru, and Germany to forge foreign ties.
His wife Sharada, a Maoist commander, died by suicide in 2010. While Basavaraju lived underground for over four decades, his family chose conventional paths - one brother is a vigilance officer at Visakhapatnam Port Trust, others include a doctor, teachers, and a local politician.
With a bounty of Rs 25 lakh in Andhra alone, Basavaraju was one of India's most wanted Maoists. Telangana DGP Jitender called his death "a big blow to Maoists and a major success for security forces in Chhattisgarh".
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