maoist-movement-on-last-leg

The Maoist movement is literally gasping for breath. The surrender of Mallojula Venugopal Rao, a key strategist who shaped the trajectory of the armed rebellion in the last four decades, may well have come as the last straw.

 

The visuals of a smiling Maoist leader, who carried a reward of Rs 6 crore on his head, handing over his gun to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Gadchiroli, signalled the denouement of the violent ideology that he had espoused for decades. A senior member of the CPI (Maoist) politburo, the highest decision-making body, Venugopal, a 69-year-old commerce graduate from Telangana, was responsible for planning and executing several high-profile operations targeting politicians and police officials in the past.

 

Along with him, over 60 of his associates gave up arms and joined the social mainstream, dealing a severe blow to the six-decade-long revolutionary movement that sought to overthrow the state and capture power through the barrel of a gun. Those surrendered include two zonal committee members, 10 divisional committee members, and members of various ‘dalams’ (armed squads).

 

In a stirring symbolic gesture, Fadnavis gave each of the surrendered Naxalite a copy of the Constitution on the occasion and said there was no place for Maoism in India and that not a single youth or girl from Gadchiroli had joined the movement in the last four years due to the strict vigil maintained by the security forces.

 

Existential crisis

 

The spate of surrenders comes against the backdrop of the rapid erosion of its support base and the growing heat from the security forces, who have stepped up the offensive to eradicate left extremism. The development came close on the heels of the killing of the Maoist top boss Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basava Raj, in an encounter with security forces during ‘Operation Kagaar’ in May, considered a watershed moment in India’s counter-insurgency history. He was the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), the highest post in the hierarchy of the outlawed outfit.

 

Following his death, Tippiri Tirupati, a Dalit from Telangana, was appointed as the party’s general secretary. With the strength of the Central Committee (CC) being reduced to a single digit, the Maoist organisation finds itself at its weakest point in its history. To assist Tirupati, only one other senior commander, Madvi Hidma, remains active. Barring these two, the Naxal movement has lost almost all its prominent and influential leaders.

 

The surrenders also assume significance in the wake of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah setting the March 2026 deadline to wipe out Naxalism from the country.

 

Split in the outfit

 

In the run-up to Venugopal’s surrender, the outlawed outfit was grappling with serious internal differences over the rationale behind continuing the armed struggle. Widely seen as the ideological head of the party and a communication specialist, Venugopal, who goes by the pseudonyms ‘Sonu’ and ‘Abhay’, proposed renunciation of armed struggle to pave the way for talks with the government.

 

Also read: ‘Red terror’ must end for green signal on talks

 

However, this was opposed by the party, which removed him from the post of official spokesperson and entrusted the task to another central committee member, Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy, who was killed in an encounter with police in Chhattisgarh within a few days. As the number two in the outlawed party, Venugopal was also a member of the central military commission at the time of leaving the organisation.

 

Venugopal’s initial statement expressing willingness to lay down arms and explore peace talks was swiftly disowned by the Telangana state committee, the central committee and a section of Dandkarenya special zonal committee. They even described him as a traitor who was not authorised to issue any statement on behalf of the organisation.

 

Humble background

 

Venugopal hailed from a family in Karimnagar district of Telangana rooted in the priesthood and freedom fighting. He was the youngest of three sons. His elder brother, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao, popularly known as Kishenji, was also a top Maoist leader who was killed in a police encounter in West Bengal in 2011.

 

Venugopal was the brain behind planning several large-scale attacks against security forces, including high-profile operations such as the Dantewada massacre, an incident that demonstrated his tactical acumen in guerrilla warfare and ambush execution.

 

He led the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, overseeing logistics, recruitment, training, and coordination of armed activities across Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and adjoining states. As head of the Central Military Commission, he strengthened the Maoists’ offensive capabilities by advising regional commanders and enforcing strict operational secrecy.

 

Venugopal also played a pivotal role in shaping Maoist ideology and propaganda after 2010, serving as the party’s chief spokesperson. He produced policy statements, pamphlets, and manifestos that refined the party’s outreach and messaging.

 

Under his direction, Maoists expanded their influence through local governance initiatives known as ‘janatana sarkar’ (people’s government), which consolidated their authority across remote tribal belts of the 'Red Corridor'. His strategic efforts helped broaden the movement’s base into newer areas such as southern Maharashtra, Telangana, and the Western Ghats.

 

Also read: Bhupathi’s surrender marks end of Naxal era: Fadnavis

 

Venugopal’s ability to merge strategic violence with deep organisational discipline and ideological conviction made him one of the most influential leaders in the history of India’s Maoist movement.

 

Romantic aura dissipates

 

Most of the Maoist top leadership hail from Telangana, which was once considered the bastion of the Naxalite movement. However, over the years, the movement lost its sheen. A combination of steady erosion in public support and sustained pressure from security forces forced the Naxalite leaders to escape to the neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

 

Once a romantic notion that attracted both the restive urban youth on campuses and the underprivileged and exploited sections in rural areas and gave them a sense of purpose and justice, Naxalism has gradually degenerated into a refuge for a clutch of extortionists and trigger-happy vigilantes indulging in pointless violent attacks and blindly obstructing developmental projects.

 

Indiscriminate killing of innocent people, branding them as police informers, and resorting to the same brutal methods that they often accuse their enemy classes of, public hangings after holding kangaroo courts, killing politicians and policemen and resorting to extortions have resulted in a steady erosion of public support. The academics and intellectual class, once the mainstay of the Maoist ideology, slowly moved away from it.

 

Failure of talks

 

After the failure of the first-ever peace talks with the state government in October 2004, Maoists suffered big setbacks in the state, with several of their top leaders being eliminated in police operations and many more surrendering to the police.

 

The success in anti-insurgency operations was largely due to “greyhounds”, an elite anti-Naxalite outfit of AP police raised in 1989 to specialise in executing intelligence-led precision strikes.

 

Adopting jungle warfare and guerrilla tactics and armed with improved intelligence gathering and sophisticated weapons and training, Greyhounds soon emerged as a role model for the rest of the country.

 

The successive governments adopted a two-pronged strategy to contain Naxalite activities: modernisation of the police force to execute intelligence-led precision strikes and massive development in the remote areas, particularly focusing on roads, infrastructure, communication, schools and hospitals.

 

This came to be known as the ‘Andhra model’ and proved to be very effective in ridding the state of the Naxal menace.