A senior Telangana police officer said in Hyderabad on Wednesday (October 15, 2025) that the surrender of senior Naxalite leader Mallojula Venugopal Rao, one of the most influential strategists of the Maoist organization, is a serious blow to the Maoist ideology.
Rao alias Bhupathi, a native of Telangana and a Central Committee and Politburo member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered before the police along with 60 other cadres in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday (October 13, 2025). A reward of Rs 6 crore was announced by the authorities for his arrest.
Rao could have become General Secretary of CPI Maoist
Telangana Police official on Tuesday (October 14, 2025) said that Venugopal Rao could have become the general secretary of CPI (Maoist) after Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21.
The officer said, ‘He (Venugopal) was one of the backbones of the CPI (Maoist) and under normal circumstances he could have become its general secretary. But, after the death of Basavaraju, they were not in a position to regroup and elect someone else as general secretary.
According to the official, ‘Meanwhile, differences arose and he emphasized that now is not the time to confront government forces and the time has come to stop the fighting for some time.’ The Maoist leader had said that the top leadership of the banned organization was in favor of stopping the armed conflict and talking or rethinking its entire strategy.
The second faction of the banned organization will also become weak now – Officer
“The surrender of a person of such seniority, that too not due to health or any other reason, but for ideological reasons – it reflects a very clear failure of the party’s ideology and strategy,” the official said. He said, ‘There may be some others, but I don’t think they will be able to sustain the movement or the ideology anymore. This is a serious blow to the Maoist ideology. He also said that the other faction of the banned organization, which is in favor of continuing the armed struggle, will now become further weak.
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