Smarting under huge setbacks in the face of intensified security operations, the outlawed Maoist outfit has admitted that it has suffered heavy losses in recent years but vowed to broaden the struggle by mobilising the masses and pursuing a flexible guerrilla war.
In a 22-page document dated 23 June, the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) has acknowledged that 357 Maoists died, a majority of them in police encounters, over the last year, including its general secretary Namballa Kesava Rao, alias Basavaraju, in May.
The killing of Kesava Rao, the mastermind of several deadly attacks targeting politicians and police personnel, was a fatal blow that made it virtually impossible for the banned organisation to recover.
The Maoist leader, who hailed from Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, was killed along with 26 others in a fierce exchange of fire with security forces in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region on 20 May.
The document revealed that the Central Committee, the highest decision-making body of the organisation, deliberated over future strategies following the death of its top leader.
As general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), he was the backbone of the insurgency in central India and was accused of masterminding several high-profile attacks, including an ambush that left 76 security personnel dead in 2010.
The Maoist document said four of those killed were members of the Central Committee, including Kesava Rao, 16 state committee rank leaders, 17 People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) members, six from people’s organisational wings, and 34 civilians. “The details of 36 people are not available,” the document said.
According to police records, 217 Maoists were killed in 2024. By mid-2025, the number had risen to 460. Around 20,000 security forces have been deployed in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra for anti-Maoist operations.
The document analysed the reasons for the recent setbacks and blamed improper implementation of the committee’s secret methods of functioning, the rules of guerrilla warfare and the tactics.
“The guerrilla war proceeds according to tactics like ‘breeze’ and ‘flowing water.’ Like the breeze, it must remain in constant motion instead of staying in one place. The meaning of flowing like water is to avoid obstacles, not to fight decisive battles with an enemy that is many times stronger, but to implement tactics to preserve its strength,” the document said.
It reiterated the Central Committee and Politburo circulars issued in February and August 2004 that the Maoists must spread into wider areas instead of confining themselves to smaller pockets.
“We must be decentralised; class struggle must be conducted through a combination of legal-illegal, open-secret forms of struggle and organisation,” the document said.
It stated that government attempts to crush the movement before 31 March 2026 must be defeated by strictly following the tactics of the Central Committee and Politburo, including strengthening the party and protecting the PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army).
The document details how the guerrilla units have counter-attacked security forces using booby traps and IEDs, ambushing them through small and decentralised actions.
“In the past year, PLGA forces eliminated 75 enemy armed personnel and injured 130, seizing a few weapons through booby traps/IED warfare and by breaking enemy encirclement,” it said.
The Maoists in Bastar, the hotspot of ultra-left insurgency, have restructured their battalions into smaller units and pushed them into inaccessible areas in and around the inhospitable terrain of the Indravati National Park. Other rebels have abandoned military attire and are now living among villagers.
The CPI (Maoist) said it was mounting pressure on the government through civil society groups in nine to ten states to stop anti-insurgent operations.
The Central Committee called upon party cadres and the people to observe “Martyrs’ Week” from 28 July to 3 August in their areas of influence across the country.
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