CPI(Maoist) losing cadre, base in Telangana, Andhra

The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), which has lost several top Maoist leaders and cadre in large numbers in the exchange of fire with the security forces in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh and its borders of Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra in the last one year, is also fast losing its intellectual base and ideological strength, people familiar with the matter said.One of the main reasons is the fast dwindling of intellectual leadership from the Telugu states at the top level, which had dominated the Maoist outfit in the last two decades.

Many of the top leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh who were at the helm in the outfit have either been killed in encounters or died of age-related issues or various ailments.

And those who are still holding top positions are ageing and have lost the ability to lead the movement, let alone spreading the Maoist ideology across the country.“At present, the Maoist outfit is fighting a battle for survival and the top leaders are more focussed on shifting to safer zones in the wake of intense war with the security forces in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh.

There are no indications of the top leaders conducting political classes for the cadre on the Maoist philosophy now,” a senior intelligence official of the Telangana police said on condition of anonymity.The CPI (Maoist) was formed on September 21, 2004, through the merger of the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War, a predominant Maoist group in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI), based in Bihar and West Bengal.Though the talks for this merger began in 2003 itself, the formation of the CPI (Maoist) was announced in Hyderabad when the top leaders of People’s War were engaged in talks with the then Congress government in Andhra Pradesh headed by late YS Rajasekhar Reddy.According to the official quoted above, at the time of its formation in 2004, CPI-Maoist had a 16-member strong politburo, the outfit’s highest decision-making body, and a 34-member strong central committee, (comprising of all the 16 politburo members and additional 18 members), the second highest decision-making body.Many members of the central committee as well as the politburo of the CPI (Maoist) during its formation were from Andhra Pradesh.

Muppalla Lakshmana Rao from Karimnagar, who was earlier heading the People’s War, was elected as its general secretary.The other top Telugu leaders included: Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishen ji, Nambala Keshava Rao alias Ganganna alias Baswaraj, Sande Rajamouli, Katakam Sudershan alias Anand, Mallojula Venugopal alias Bhupati alias Sonu, Tipparthi Tirupati alias Devji, Malla Raji Reddy, Patel Sudhakar Reddy, Akkkiraju Haragopal alias RK, Chandramouli, Varanasi Subrahmanyam alias Srikanth, Ramchandra Reddy alias Chalapathi, Malla Raji Reddy alias Sattenna and Kobad Ghandy alias Saleem.In the subsequent years, many other leaders from Telugu states were promoted to the top ranks, like Jinugu Narasimha Reddy alias Jampanna, Modem Balakrishna, Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy alias Kosa, Katta Ramchandra Reddy alias Vijay alias Raju, Pulluri Prasad Rao, Gajarla Ravi, Paka Hanumanthu alias Ganesh Uike, Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, Sanjay Deepak Rao, Takkallapalli Vasudeva Rao, Anuradha Ghandy and Lanka Papi Reddy.According to a 2021 intelligence report, the central committee, which includes politburo members, comprised 21 members, of which 10 were from Telangana and two from Andhra Pradesh.

“However, we have information that this figure has been changing and some lower-rung leaders are being elevated to the central committee to strengthen the top leadership,” the intelligence official quoted above said.“Most of the Telugu Maoist leaders were highly educated – post-graduates, lawyers and even PhD degree holders.

They provided the intellectual strength to the outfit, by conducting regular training classes and inculcating the doctrine of Marxism, Leninism and Maoist ideology among the leaders and cadres,” Ravi Sharma, who himself was an agricultural scientist pursuing his PhD in Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in Delhi in ‘90s, before joining the movement.

He headed the Maoist outfit’s Bihar and Jharkhand units.However, the Maoist movement in the Telugu states received a massive setback between 2005 and 2009 with the police forces, particularly Greyhounds, an elite anti-Maoist force, launching a crackdown on the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh.

Security forces supported by a strong intelligence network bumped off one leader after the other, forcing all the top leaders to beat a retreat into the Chhattisgarh jungles and some into Odisha.“Due to severe repression in both urban and rural Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the recruitments of Telugu leaders into the Maoist outfit have come down.

There are no more student unions in the universities in Telugu states.

As a result, there are no intellectual discussions in the academic institutions,” Venugopal said.“In the last one decade, there have been killings of several top Maoist leaders belonging to the Telugu states and some others died to diseases and age-related issues,” Ravi Sharma admitted.

“But still, Maoists from Andhra are still holding important positions in the central committee, central military commission and Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee,” he said.Among the top Telugu Maoist leaders who lost their lives in the encounters include: Sande Rajamouli, Cherukuri Raj Kumar alias Azad, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, Patel Sudhakar Reddy and more recently, Ramchandra Reddy alias Chalapathi.

Though there were reports of other top leaders like Bade Chokka Rao alias Damodar and Paka Hanumanthu alias Ganesh Uike getting killed in encounters, they were not confirmed.Some other central committee members like Jinugu Narasimha Reddy alias Jampanna, Narla Ravi Sharma, Varanasi Subrahmanyam, Takkallapalli Vasudeva Rao, Lanka Papi Reddy and Kobad Ghandy either surrendered or were arrested by the police.

According to Jampanna, the presence of Telugus in the top leadership might have come down due to encounter killings, arrests and surrenders, but there are still many Telugus who have been working in different parts of the country holding various responsibilities.“As far as the ideological strength of the outfit, the Telugu leaders made big contributions.

As such, there has been no change in the line of thinking so far.

I am not sure whether there is any attempt on the part of the Maoist outfit to have a rework on their strategies,” Jampanna said.According to the latest document of the Chhattisgarh police, there are still 14 Telugu leaders in the top leadership of the outfit: They are: Nambala Keshava Rao alias Baswaraj, Muppalla Lakshmana Rao alias Gajapathi, Mallojula Venugopal Rao or alias Abhay alias Sonu, Murali, Tipparthi Tirupati alias Devji, Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy alias Kosa, Modem Balakrishna, Pulluri Prasada Rao, Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, Paka Hanumanthu alias Ganesh Uike, Kotta Ramachandra Reddy alias Vikalp, TLN Challam alias Anand and Putula Kalpana alias Sujatha.However, most of these top leaders are ageing and are said to be suffering from various ailments.

While present general secretary Baswaraj is now 70 years old, Ganapathi is 76 years and is not able to move out of his hideout.

Others like Sonu, Balakrishna, Pulluri Prasada Rao and Ramachandra Reddy are all above sixty and others are more than 50 years old.“There is an attempt to bring in young leaders, but none of them is from Telugu states.

In the coming years, the local leadership is going to emerge in Chhattisgarh and Odisha,” Jampanna said.