CPI (Maoist) in tatters without leadership or direction, says Telangana DGP Shivadhar Reddy

Hyderabad: The surrender of top leader Tippiri Tirupati and first-generation Naxal veteran Malla Raji Reddy has left the banned CPI (Maoist) without leadership or direction signaling the end of the armed insurgency that began in Naxalbari, West Bengal, in 1967, at least in Telangana. Over six decades, Telugus from undivided Andhra Pradesh and Telangana provided strategic guidance to the violent movement.

Telangana police have identified about 11 state-origin Naxals in other state bureaus of the banned outfit. They plan to work with surrendered leaders to bring the rest including those in Jharkhand and Odisha out of the jungles and into the mainstream.

“There are 11 Telangana natives still underground, including Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy. Of the remaining 10, only one or two are active; the rest are inactive. I appeal to them to lay down arms and surrender. The movement that began in Telangana is nearly over here,” said DGP B Shivadhar Reddy.

He declared the banned party is headless, rudderless, and leaderless. "Now nobody is leading the Maoist party. It is almost in tatters. The expectation was that Devji would become the general secretary but after talking to these people who have come out now, it shows that the Central Committee Meeting could not be held because of the huge repressions. So, they are saying that since no Central Committee Meeting was held, nobody could be chosen as the general secretary. So, as on today, the party is headless, rudderless, leaderless. There is no regrouping as such to the best of my knowledge, they may be moving from one part to the other to escape the Police's combing operations," said Shivadhar Reddy.

Roots and rise in Telangana

The Naxalite movement, declining since Operation Kagar, found fertile ground in undivided Andhra Pradesh’s Telangana region amid socio-economic disparities, especially among Dalits and Adivasis.

Northern tribal areas, plagued by underdevelopment and exploitation, became insurgent hotspots in the 1970s and 1980s, with Andhra leaders driving expansion.

In 2004, CPI (Maoist) formed from the merger of Andhra-based CPI (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War (PWG) and Bihar-West Bengal’s Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). Announced in Hyderabad, it highlighted Andhra’s centrality.

Undivided Andhra provided India’s Naxal leadership through figures like schoolteacher Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, who founded PWG in 1980, and Srikakulam’s Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, general secretary from 2018 until his May encounter death.

North Telangana and Dandakaranya forests spanning Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha served as training and guerrilla bases. Andhra leaders shaped the Central Military Commission, technical units, and intelligence wings.

PWG’s ideological clarity, structure, and discipline drew nationwide cadres, with Telugu leaders from Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, and Khammam dominating the Politburo.

Andhra’s Greyhounds elite force turned the tide from the mid-2000s, forcing leaders underground to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand or neutralizing them. Though operations dwindled in Andhra, Telugu cadres retained influence in Dandakaranya and Jharkhand.

During the 2004 PWG-MCCI merger, Andhra leaders held strategic and ideological control thanks to superior cadre strength, guerrilla expertise, and tactics. They built the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) under Andhra command, mastering IEDs, ambushes, and jungle warfare across central and eastern India.

Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy

Keymaoist Telugu leaders include Karimnagar’s Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy, general secretary until 2018 and the most powerful Maoist for two decades. Ill health forced him to step down, passing command to Basavaraju. Intelligence sources suggest Ganapathy is abroad, not in forests.

"The information we have is that Ganapathy is not in the forest area. He is somewhere outside, maybe in some town or somewhere. We are trying to establish some contact with the people who are close to Ganapathy. We expect that he will also come out,” said Shivadhar Reddy.