Opinion - News Analysis   

A change of guard

K. Srinivas Reddy

The CPI (Maoist) State Committee in Andhra Pradesh has a low profile leader as part of a process begun in 2001.

BURRA CHINNANNA aka Madhav taking over as leader of the CPI (Maoist) State Committee in Andhra Pradesh from Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna may not result in any radical change in the Maoists' activities in the areas under their control. But it may have made at least two senior leaders unhappy.

The change is not surprising as the Maoists have been in the process of effecting a shake-up in all the four special zonal committees since 2001.

Mattam Ravi Kumar alias Sreedhar and Sakhamuri Appa Rao alias Ravi, members of the State Committee, were serious aspirants for the top post.

However, Madhav, a member of the secretariat within the State Committee, was preferred. Known to be extremely good in field craft, Madhav has not even been "sighted" by the police in over two decades of underground life, while most of the heavy losses to the naxalite movement by way of arrests or killings, took place in the State Committee area. The Andhra Pradesh police do not even have a photograph of Madhav.

The State Committee oversees the revolutionary movement in the districts of Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Rangareddy, Hyderabad city, Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur, Chittoor, Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur, and West Godavari.

Naxalite documents indicate that the secretaries of Special Zonal Committees of North Telangana (NT), Andhra Orissa Border (AOB), Dandakaranya (DK) and the State Committee (SC) were made members of the Central Committee (CC) in 2001.

It was then decided that within a year, these four leaders should become full time CC members after appointment of new secretaries. Accordingly, Lanka Papi Reddy, heading DK, was replaced by K. Satyanarayan Reddy alias Kosa, and Vadkapur Chandramouli alias Devanna of AOB by Modem Balakrishna.

A severe leadership crisis forced the Maoists to retain J. Narasimha Reddy alias Jampanna in NT. Ramakrishna too had to continue in the SC because of the talks process initiated in 2002 by the Telugu Desam Government.

He remained there the next year too because of the severe police crackdown, and then the process of talks was resumed with the Congress Government.

Madhav, police records say, mostly worked in Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar districts and was said to be "extremely cautious."

This enabled him to survive the police onslaught when most of his colleagues were either arrested or killed.

Priority to self-defence?

Given this background, police believe he will accord top priority to self-defence rather than carrying out any sensational attacks that can spark a violent retaliation by the Government.

He can also count on the support of Ramakrishna, who will continue to guide the movement and also "shield" him from the pressures most likely from colleagues such as Sreedhar, known to be more of a military man than an ideologue.

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