Hyderabad: The endgame of the four-and-a-half decade-old Maoist movement unfolded vividly under the shadow of intensive military operations when the chief and general secretary-designate of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) Tippiri Tirupathi and three other top leaders came into the open from their underground life here on Tuesday (February 24).

They were produced before a battery of cameras by Telangana’s director general of police B. Shivadhar Reddy in what he called the first instalment of Maoist leaders to surrender to the police.

In the subsequent rounds, a “significant” number of them will show up, said the chief of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the police that negotiated the mass surrenders ahead of the March 31, 2026, deadline set by the Union government for making India ‘Maoist-free’, adding that their number could go up to 30 or 40.

The police forces closed in on almost the entire top leadership of the CPI (Maoist) comprising Tirupathi alias Devji and several others reportedly in the forests of Asifabad in Telangana on Sunday in the latest spell of the surrender spree within the party as the March 31 deadline approached fast.

But only Tirupathi, politburo member Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram, Telangana state committee secretary Bade Chokka Rao alias Damodar and state committee member Nune Narasimha Reddy alias Ganganna were produced before a media conference on Tuesday. The others could not be brought due to ideological differences among them, a senior official said.

The Maoist party patriarch Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapati continued to be elusive, “but it is likely he will also come out”, said Shivadhar Reddy. “We are trying to bring him also. He is not in the forest like the others. He is in some urban area, where he is sheltered,” he added.

Sources, however, said he is either harboured in Nepal or had left for some other country.

Barring him and a handful of leaders, including central committee member (CCM) Misir Besra who operated in Jharkhand, those who surrendered on Sunday were all that the CPI (Maoist) could boast about to carry on its activities beyond March 31.

Lakshmana Rao has been underground since 1977 and took over as general secretary of the party in the mid-1990s. He relinquished the responsibility in 2018.

Tirupathi is believed to have led a group of 16 Maoists to surrender to the police in the forests of Asifabad on Sunday after days of negotiations with the sleuths of the SIB from their hideouts in Madhya Pradesh.

Shivadhar Reddy said Tirupathi was designated as general........

© The Wire