Naxal leader Venugopal's surrender severe setback to Maoists ideology: Telangana Police officer

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (PTI) The surrender of senior Naxal leader Mallojula Venugopal Rao, considered one of the most influential strategists in the Maoist organisation, is a "severe" setback for the Maoist ideology, a senior Telangana police official said on Tuesday.

Rao, alias Bhupathi, a native of Telangana and a member of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist)'s central committee and Politburo, surrendered before police along with 60 other cadres in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district on Monday.

A bounty of Rs 6 crore was announced by the authorities for his arrest.

The Telangana police officer said Rao could have been the CPI (Maoist) General Secretary after Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21.

"He (Venugopal) is one of the backbones of the CPI (Maoist), and he could have been the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) in normal circumstances.

"But, after the death of Basavaraju, they were not in a position to regroup and select someone else to be the general secretary. In the meantime, differences occurred, and he vehemently took a line that this is not the time to take on the government forces anymore, and it is time to cease the fight for some time," the official told PTI.

The Maoist leader had said that the top leadership of the proscribed organisation was in favour of ceasing the armed struggle and going for talks or revisiting their entire strategy, according to the official.

"That kind of a person with such seniority coming out (surrender) not because of any health or any other reason, but because of ideological reasons, and the war strategy shows a very distinct and clear failure of the party's ideology as well as tactics.

"There may be (some other) people, but I don't think they will sustain the movement or ideology anymore. It's a severe setback for the Maoist ideology," he said.

The official further said the other section of the banned organisation, which is in favour of continuing the armed struggle, will weaken further.

"What kind of new struggle the other faction will take up and how they are going to revisit their strategy is yet to be seen," he said.

According to sources, Venugopal had long supervised platoon operations of Naxal rebels along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border. However, growing differences between him and the top Naxal leadership in the recent months led to an internal conflict, they said.

According to the Telangana police, Bhupathi called for "temporarily renouncing armed struggle" and issued an oral and written statement on August 15 claiming they were ready for a ceasefire.

He issued another statement in September stating that it (laying down arms) was discussed in the central committee and Politburo, and decided accordingly, even before Basavaraju was killed.

Bhupathi's call for "laying down arms" gained support with the north sub-zonal and west sub-zonal Bureau of the CPI (Maoist), besides the Maad division committee of Maoists.

He had claimed that the armed struggle failed and appealed for a shift towards peace and dialogue, citing diminishing public support and the loss of hundreds of cadres.

His stand was met with resistance from other senior cadres who decided to continue the fight under another leader, sources said.

Under pressure from the central Naxal leadership, he eventually agreed to lay down arms, announced his exit from the outfit, and surrendered with his followers before the Gadchiroli police, they said. PTI VVK GDK HIG NSD NSD