New Delhi: In what may come as the final blow to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its organisational strength, the only remaining members of the central committee have surrendered before the Telangana Police.
Among them, the most significant is Thippiri Tirupathi, alias Devuji, who has been the de facto general secretary of the banned outfit for months after the killing of former general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju in May last year.
The development comes just a month before the 31 March deadline set by the Union home minister for eradicating Left-wing extremism in the country.
Along with Devuji, the other member of the Maoists’ top decision-making body who has laid down arms is Malla Raji Reddy, alias Sanghram.
Devuji’s surrender is crucial to the security forces’ efforts in Telangana, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh, as he was staunchly opposed to surrendering until he was forced to do it.
ThePrint had earlier reported that there was a vertical split among the senior cadre of the banned outfit on the issue of surrender, with Devujee opposing the move while his contemporary, Mallujola Venugopal, alias Bhupati, was keen to surrender to the security forces.
Such was Devuji’s opposition to surrendering that he had threatened to kill Sonu, head of their politcal wing, who had surrendered in October.
“Sonu’s call for surrender to Devujee angered him (Devujee) so much that he sent a message to Sonu saying that if he were compelled to give up arms and surrender, he (Sonu) would be killed with the same weapon,” a police officer privy to the matter had earlier told ThePrint.
With his and Sanghram’s surrender, the Maoist outfit has been left with only one active central committee member, a big change since January last year, when the committee had 17 members.
Misir Besra is the only central committee member who is still active in the organisation and has been hiding in the Saranda forest, which spans Jharkhand and Odisha, sources in intelligence agencies suggest.
The other central committee member, Muppala Lakshmana Rao, is now “senile” and does not actively participate in the party’s affairs, officials said.
All other central committee members have either been killed in encounters with security forces in the last year or have surrendered.
Bhupati, who is the younger brother of the slain Maoist leader and ideologue Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, surrendered before the Maharashtra Police in October last year in Gadchiroli district.
Before him, another senior Maoist leader, Pothula Padmavathi, also known as Sujatha, had surrendered before the Telangana Police in September last year. Sujatha is Kishenji’s wife and had spent 43 years with the movement.
A month later, in October last year, another central committee member, Pulluri Prasad Rao alias Chandranna, surrendered before Telangana Police, dealing a deadly blow to the outfit. According to sources in the intelligence agencies, Chandranna was a “key man looking after logistics and the communication channel between the central committee members hiding in different parts of the country”.
Until Devujee surrendered to the Telangana Police, Chandrana’s surrender was seen as a decisive victory for the security forces in Telangana.
On Saturday, Deva, along with 18 other underground cadre, surrendered before Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) B. Shivadhar Reddy, who has been hailed it as the tipping point in ending the violent Maoist movement in the country.
Last month, another key Moaist figure in the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, the military wing of the CPI (Maoist), had surrendered before the Telangana Police. Deva was a close confidant and understudy to the slain Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, who was killed by Andhra Pradesh Police in an encounter in November last year.
After Deva’s surrender, Telangana DGP B. Shivadhar Reddy said the entire People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army has been wiped out.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)