“A Farewell to Arms”, Open Magzine, October 17, 2025
“OCTOBER 14 marked the end of the“revolutionary road” for Mallojula Venugopal Rao, the top Maoist commander in Chhattisgarh. When Rao, who surrendered before Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Gadchiroli—a Maoist hot bed in the state—he was not alone. He brought two zonal committee members, 10divisional committee members of the CPI( Maoist) and dozens of other cadres along with him. In one fell swoop, Rao ended up decimating the senior rung of the party in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. In all, 60Maoists gave up their arms. The scale of the folding up in Maoist ranks can be gauged from the fact that on the same day, another 78 Maoists surrendered before the Border Security Force at Koyalibeda in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. Kanker is a district that adjoins Gadchiroli district and Koyalibeda is one of the last areas of Maoist influence in the district. Here, as in Gadchiroli, two zonal committee members quit the Maoist party.
The significance of these surrenders lies not just in their numbers but also in the ranks of those who have surrendered and geographic locations where they were active. Rao, for example, is a Politburo member of the CPI (Maoist) as well as a member of the Central Military Commission of the party. Among those who surrendered in Koyalibeda were scores of members from the Rowghat Area Committee. Rowghat is an area on the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts and a motherlode of very high-quality iron ore.
In recent years, a rail track has been laid from Bhanupratappur in Kanker district to Rowghat. But mining could not be undertaken in this densely forested area that abuts the Abhujmad region, one of the last refuges of Maoists in the state. Now, development of the region can proceed smoothly. At the ideological level, Rao’s surrender is a huge blow to the CPI (Maoist). In May, Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavraj, the general secretary of the party, was gunned down in a remote corner of the Indravati National Park in Chhattisgarh…….”
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