CPI (Maoist) Inches Towards Collapse With Surrender of 130 More Insurgents

Hyderabad: In one of the closing chapters of the turbulent Maoist activity in the country, as many as 130 insurgents, almost all of them from Chhattisgarh, surrendered before Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy here on Saturday (March 7). They also gave up 124 guns they brought with them.

Barring four from Telangana and one from Andhra Pradesh, all the militants were from tribal villages in the Sukma and Bijapur districts of Chhattisgarh. They included 42 fighters of the first battalion of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the formidable fighting force of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The battalion was headed by its dreaded commander Madvi Hidma, who was killed in a purported encounter with police in the forests of Maredumilli of Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitharama Raju district in November.

The entire Telangana state committee of the CPI (Maoist) ceased to exist with the surrender of 30 insurgents today, director general of police B. Shivadhar Reddy announced on the occasion. He also declared that the PLGA has completely come undone.

Ten supporting staff of the insurgent outfit's central committee members too were present.

Noted poet and writer Chalasani Prasad's daughter Chalasani Navatha, aged 61, also surrendered. She was a member of the Maoist party's Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and a functionary of its regional political school near the Andhra-Odisha border. Her father Prasad was the founding member of the Revolutionary Writers' Association.

Among the 124 weapons recovered by police were 31 AK-47 rifles and a light machine gun. Over 5,000 rounds of ammunition were brought by the ultras. They were shifted in four buses to the Integrated Command Control Centre of the police at Banjara Hills before the arrival of the chief minister.

The latest surrenders were a sequel to the top leaders of CPI (Maoist) – Tippiri Tirupathi alias Devji, the party's general secretary-designate, and politburo member Malla Raji Reddy – giving themselves up to the police here a few days ago.

The chief minister met both of them and four other senior leaders later and called on Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi with their wishlist, signalling the cadre's willingness to give themselves up before the March 31 deadline for Operation Kagar, which aims to rid India of Maoists.

Addressing the gathering, Revanth Reddy said Shah had asked him to convey that all their demands for the facilitation of a normal overground life would be met if they gave up their arms.

Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy looks at a weapon after as many as 130 Maoists surrendered before him in Hyderabad on March 7, 2026. As part of the surrender process, the cadres handed over 124 firearms, including AK-47 rifles and over 5,200 live ammunition rounds of various calibres. Photo: PTI.

They had mainly raised demands for financial assistance, houses to live in, agricultural land as a source of income and health insurance in view of their deteriorating health caused by long years of underground life. Except for agricultural land, the government will concede all their other demands, Reddy said.

He appealed to Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy, the founding figure of the CPI (Maoist) along with Kondapalli Sitaramaiah, and half-a-dozen other top leaders who are still elusive, to follow suit. He promised them that the government will provide them safe passage from their hideouts.

Answering questions from mediapersons, Revanth Reddy said there was no question of lifting the ban on the Maoist party if its cadre continued to operate. However, a ban would be irrelevant if the entire cadre gave up, he said.

To another question, the chief minister said the government will take a sympathetic view on criminal cases against Maoists.

Little could be done if they were accused of involvement in murders or other heinous crimes as the courts would not stop trial in such cases even if the government drops them, he said, adding that in any case the government would set up a committee to examine cases on their merits and on a person-to-person basis.

Revanth Reddy was all praises for Shivadhar Reddy and inspector general of the Special Intelligence Branch B. Sumathi for their hard work in bringing out the ultras from their underground life.

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