Top Maoist leader Muppala Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathi — who is the political face of the extremist movement and said to be hiding in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh — has reportedly offered to surrender before Telangana police officials.
Age-related ailments are said to be behind the Maoist leader's alleged offer to surrender.
If the surrender does happen, it will be a major blow to the Maoist movement in the country, since Ganapathi is the guiding force and the movement's link to urban India.
While Telangana police said they would welcome and facilitate such a move, a senior IPS officer in Chhattisgarh told DH that Ganapathi’s surrender process could be already on, with the Centre kept in the loop.
Hailing from Jagityal in Telangana, Ganapathi, who is in his 70s, had stepped down in November 2018 as the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), handing over the mantle to Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraj, who is from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh.
However, Ganapathi continues to mentor insurgents. Another key leader Mallojula Venugopal alias Bhupathi, a central committee member, has also decided to surrender, sources said.
“This would be the game changer when it happens,” said the Chhattisgarh IPS officer. “Nambala is strong on the military side, but Ganapathi is the one sustaining the movement with connections with the outside world — the urban links we talk about.”
Ganapathi carries a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore on his head offered by the Chhattisgarh government. Other left-wing extremism affected states like Maharashtra, Telangana also have cash prizes for those who help find him dead or alive. This amount will go to Ganapathi if he surrenders.
A teacher-turned-extremist, Ganapathi has been suffering from diabetes, arthritis, and other age-related ailments for some years now, which has severely constrained his movement.
Special intelligence officials of Telangana and Chhattisgarh said that Ganapathi is insulated in the deep forests of Abhujmaad in Chhattisgarh.
His advanced age and ailments have supposedly pushed Ganapathi to make a surrender offer to the Telangana government through his family and friends’ network, in order to avail proper medical care and a peaceful retirement.
“There are reports of his such intentions. We would welcome and facilitate, as per the process, if Ganapathi and or any other Maoist approaches to join the mainstream,” a top intelligence official of Telangana police told DH.
“His surrender would be most probably in Telangana only,” the official added.
Maoist turn
Ganapathi was born in 1949 in Beerpur village of the then Karimnagar district of Telangana. He graduated in science from SRR College in Karimnagar in 1970 and served as a teacher for three years (1971-74) in a government high school in Elgandal village of Karimnagar district.
In 1974, he shifted to Warangal to pursue B.Ed. It was in Warangal, the hotbed of Naxalite movement in the eighties and nineties, that Ganapthi came in contact with the People’s War Group founder, Kondapalli Seetharamaiah.
Ganapathi later joined the insurgents and became the CPI (ML) People’s War’s secretary in 1992. The Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) merged with the PWG in September 2004 under his guidance, and Ganapathi became the Maoist Party’s supreme leader. He was the General Secretary of CPI (Maoists) till 2018.
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