Raipur: The entire command structure of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) now lay in tatters following the killing of its head Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju in the May 21 encounter in the Abujhmad area of Narayanpur district under south Bastar of Chhattisgarh, a senior police officer said on Wednesday. The red organization, for the first time since its formation decades ago, has become leaderless following the neutralization of its general secretary Basavaraju, leading to virtual collapse of its entire command structure, Bastar range inspector general of police P Sunderraj told this newspaper. The senior and local Maoist leaders are not even able to conduct meetings and undertake mass contact programmes in the Naxal strongholds, which were their basic cohesion measures, Mr. Sunderraj said, while narrating the impact of Basavaraju’s killing on the organization. “Demoralization and hopelessness pervade the entire Maoist outfit right from top to bottom following the killing of Basavaraju. The entire command structure of the organization is now in very bad shape”, Mr. Sunderraj said. The security forces, through consistent, intelligence-led operations, have left the CPI (Maoist) fragmented and disoriented, struggling to maintain even basic cohesion, he added. With no credible leadership and strategic direction, the CPI (Maoist) is now rapidly disintegrating, he said while citing how the death of the Naxal top gun has led to spurt in surrender of senior Maoist leaders and cadres in hordes. “With his (Basavaraju) death, the movement has lost its ideological and operational anchor. By all likelihood, Basavaraju was the last effective general secretary of a now-defunct organization”, he predicted. Justifying his claim, he said the Maoist leaders are now not in a position to take decisions relating to the Naxal movement as their military and political wings now lacked synchronization. Citing an instance of serious contradictions being witnessed in the red outfit, he said Ramchandra Reddy was appointed secretary of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) after the death of the incumbent in the position then Ravula Srinivas alias Ramanna in 2019 but his appointment never found mention in a Naxal press release, which is very unusual in the organization known for discipline, in the last six years. Speculations are rife that his appointment has not been made official by the organization fearing internal conflict between the local leaders (of Bastar in Chhattisgarh) and outsiders (of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). He cited the ‘confession’ made by the Maoists in their latest press release which admitted that the security of Basavaraju was scaled down considerably from more than 60 cadres in January to 35 at the time of his encounter death on May 21 due to surrender of a significant number of members of the unit, and said, “This is a clear sign of disintegration of the organization”.
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