Once the hotbed of the Naxalites now known as Maoists, the Left Wing Extremism is apparently struggling to survive in Andhra Pradesh.
The state police department asserts that the Maoist movement's decline has been significantly steep in the past two years, “when their cadre strength was reduced from 140 to 54.”
As per the Andhra Pradesh police intelligence reports, the Maoist military formations, responsible for guerrilla actions, saw a reduction from two companies (50 members) to a mere platoon (10 members).
Out of the 13 districts in the state, LWE activities have been largely confined to Visakhapatnam and East Godavari, which comprise the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) area.
While eight area committees were operating in early 2019, at present there are four such committees in the AOB. Only two divisional committees (Visakha-East and Malkangiri-Koraput Border) and one military platoon are active in the AOB.
Two Central Committee Members - Akkiraju Harigopal alias Ramakrishna (RK) and Gajarla Ravi alias Uday are said to be operating in the AOB Special Zonal Committee (SZC).
Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Gautam Sawang attributes this decline in Maoist influence – numerically and geographically – to a lack of new local recruitment, waning public support even as several Maoists have either been killed in encounters or surrendered before the police.
In the last two years, 14 Maoists including three Divisional Committee Members were neutralised in 11 exchanges of fire, six including one Special Zonal Committee Member and one DCM were arrested and 32 cadres including one SZCM and three DCMs surrendered.
“Because of their violent activities, killing of innocent tribals branding them as police informers, obstruction of road construction and other development activities in the interiors, public perception towards Maoists has been visibly changing and they are fast losing the hitherto local support,” Sawang says.
“Most of the village level formations known as Janatana Sarkars are also defunct,” the DGP says while also factoring in the government welfare schemes, police outreach, tribal youth skill development programmes etc for the change.
Due to the inadequate local recruitment, officials say that Maoists are trying to influx Chhattisgarh cadre to work in the AOB-SZC. “But due to the tough terrain and language barriers, they find it difficult to operate here and often run back to Chhattisgarh.”
In May, CCM Uday had brought with him eight new cadres from Chhattisgarh to function in the AOB.
Maoists surrender
Six CPI Maoists of AOBSZC – including Chikkudu Chinna Rao alias Sudheer, a divisional committee member and two former bodyguards of top leader Akkiraju alias RK– have surrendered before the police. A native of Pedabayalu in Visakhapatnam district, Sudheer (32) is also the commander of the divisional command, carrying a reward of Rs five lakh and involved in 93 offences including 14 murders.
Vanthala Vannu alias Mahita alias Sailu (25) and Madakam Somidi (21), both Area Committee Members, were part of the team protecting RK. Mahita participated in the incident of killing TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and ex-MLA Siveri Soma in September 2018.
“Disillusion with the obsolete Maoist ideology, discrimination of the Adivasi cadre by the leaders hailing from the plains and attractive surrender policies of AP government are among the reasons for their surrender,” Sawang said while presenting them before media on Thursday at Amaravati.
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