New Delhi: Senior Maoist leader and the de facto chief of the banned outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoist), Thippiri Tirupathi alias ‘Devuji’, is set to lay down his arms officially before Telangana Police in Hyderabad Tuesday.
He will be accompanied by another member of the politburo and central committee, Mali Raji Reddy alias ‘Sanghram’, and dozens of other Maoist cadres.
The surrender marks a major milestone in the efforts of the security forces, and the Centre and state governments, in curbing left-wing extremism (LWE).
With Devuji’s exit, the top Maoist leadership has been nearly eliminated, with the exception of Misir Besra, now the lone member of the politburo and central committee, currently holed up in the Saranda forest on Jharkhand-Odisha border. Although there are some other members, like Pusunuri Narahari alias ‘Tech Vishwanath’, still on the run, they are not considered influential figures by intelligence agencies.
In February 2025, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had publicly declared 31 March, 2026 as the deadline to end Naxalism in the country. Security forces in all Naxal-affected states have since upped the ante in terms of operations, besides extending an olive branch to senior Maoist leaders, attempting to get them to surrender and rehabilitate them into the mainstream.
According to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs, as many as 2,167 Maoist cadres surrendered in 2025—a huge leap from 881 in 2024, and 376 in 2023. Security forces have also killed a dozen Maoist leaders in exchange of fire since January 2025.
ThePrint looks at the prominent Maoist surrenders over the past year.
Pothula Padmavathi, or ‘Sujatha’
The first major surrender among central committee members was that of Padmavathi, known by popular name ‘Sujatha’ within Maoist ranks and in police records. She had surrendered before Telangana Police in September last year, and has been rehabilitated since.
A native of Telangana’s Jogulamba Gadwal district, Sujatha had been in hiding for over four decades. During this period, she had also married a senior leader, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao, alias ‘Kishanji’, who had worked as a central committee member and secretary of West Bengal State Committee of CPI (Maoist). Kishanji was killed in an encounter with West Bengal Police in 2011.
Mallojula Venugopal Rao, or ‘Abhay’
Faced with unprecedented pressure on the armed wing and the militia of the outfit, Mallojula Venugopal Rao, who went by the popular name ‘Abhay’, had written to the State, urging for a halt on operations and showing willingness to return to the mainstream.
The plan materialised in October last year, when he surrendered his arms with a large group of Maoist cadres before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and then DGP Rashmi Shukla in Gadchiroli district.
The surrender of Abhay—also known as ‘Sonu’—had been anticipated as he had already declared a unilateral ceasefire on behalf of Maoist cadres in a purported letter. He was the senior-most leader to surrender in October last year. Besides being the spokesperson of the Central Committee, he had been one of the contenders for the top post, replacing slain Maoist general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao, alias ‘Basavaraju’.
Pulluri Prasad Rao, or ‘Chandranna’
A member of the Central Committee, Rao, who also went by ‘Chandranna’, surrendered before Telangana Police a couple of weeks after Abhay. Hailing from the Peddapalli district in Telangana, Chandranna was a Central Committee member and a key point of contact for all other committee members across the country.
“Sonu was a political figure among the Maoist cadres, but Chandranna was the key man looking after logistics and the communication channel between the CCMs hiding in different parts of the country. He was the point of contact for CCMs, and was possibly the biggest surrenderer among the senior leaders,” a police official had previously told ThePrint.
Ramdher Majji
The next major surrender by a Maoist leader had come in December 2025 in Chhattisgarh from Majji, who headed the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone of the outfit.
This one had come days after that of the special zonal committee member and the spokesperson of the outfit’s MMC zone. Sources in intelligence agencies said that Ramdher had no other option but to surrender after nearly all cadres in the zone decided to give up arms.
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Barsa Deva
Believed to be the right hand and understudy to his childhood friend and dreaded Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, Deva’s exit was seen as a fatal blow to the armed wing of the Maoist outfit.
After his surrender earlier last month, Telangana DGP B. Shivadhar Reddy had remarked that it had wiped out the existence of People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, military wing of CPI (Maoist).
Deva, who had joined the movement following Hidma’s footsteps, was made the de facto commander of the first battalion of the PLGA, the unit Hidma used to head before his elevation to the central committee and eventual killing in an encounter in November 2025.
Devuji & Sanghram
According to police records, Devuji had joined the movement in the 1980s as a member of the erstwhile splinter group called the People’s War Group, before moving on to become a member of the Gadchiroli Divisional Committee in 1990, and being promoted to the rank of secretary in 1999.
In 2001, he was inducted into the Central Military Commission (CMC), the main military body of the Maoist party. He was later promoted to the unit’s chief in 2018, when then chief Basavraju was elevated to the post of Maoist general secretary. Devuji was inducted into the politburo in 2023.
On the other hand, Sanghram has been considered to be one of the oldest Maoist leaders, having joined the movement in 1975. Police officers who have served in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh recall him as one of the first few Maoist cadres to have migrated to the Dandkaranya region—spread across Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, Maharashtra, Odisha, and areas of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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