Jagdalpur: No cadre of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) will come forward to take the place of its slain general secretary, Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, Bastar range Inspector General (IG) of Police Sundar Raj Pattilingam said in an exclusive interview with ThePrint.
The assertions come 10 days after security forces, comprising District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnel from Narayanpur, Dantewada, and Bijapur, killed Basavaraju and 26 other Maoists in a three-day encounter in Abujhmarh.
As an example, the IG cited the fact that no clear names had emerged to replace the CPI (Maoist)’s Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) secretary, Ramanna, six years after his death. Ramanna reportedly died of a heart attack in the jungles of Bijapur in 2019.
“After the end of the CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju, I don’t think there will be any other cadre who will be coming forward to take that position. Because, in 2019, we have observed, after the demise of DKSZC general secretary, Ramanna, for the last almost six years, no one has come forward” to take his position, Pattilingam said.
“Though someone has been officiating or acting as a secretary, there has been no official communication from Maoist outfits… to name anyone as the secretary of DKZSC,” he added.
Pattilingam, the seniormost police officer in the Bastar division, oversees anti-Naxal operations carried out in at least five of the seven districts of the region. It comprises Narayanpur, Kanker, Kondagaon, Bijapur, Sukma, Dantewada and Bastar districts.
“I am seeing the same scenario for CPI (Maoist) general secretary also, because this organisation is facing its end and breathing its last breath. No one would come forward to fill the post as the general secretary of CPI (Maoist),” he said.
He further said, “It is not a constitutional post. It is not a constitutional body. The entire CPI (Maoist) outfit is a banned, illegal outfit. It doesn’t need any leadership.
“Unknown will come forward, and this whole organisation is already in terrible shape. Its morale is hitting its lowest ever possible. They are facing a lot of defections from the cadres. So the entire organisation is in very bad shape.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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