Why Amit Shah called Chalapati’s killing a ‘mighty blow to Naxalism’

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who passed away last month, once described Left-wing extremism as the “gravest internal threat” facing India. His assessment was right, given Maoists have killed more than 6,400 civilians in the past two decades compared to over 4,600 people killed in the insurgency hotbeds of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast in the same period.Security forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations have achieved a major success recently with the killing of top Communist Party of India (Maoist) leader Chalapati along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border. He carried a ₹1-crore bounty on his head.The elimination of Chalapati — the first central committee member to be killed in an anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh, according to Gariaband police chief Nikhil Rakhecha — is seen as a significant milestone in weakening the Naxal leadership as the Narendra Modi government sets out to realise its goal of uprooting Left-wing extremism by March 31, 2026.Union home minister Amit Shah has called it a “mighty blow to Naxalism” in a social media post. Another mighty blow to Naxalism. Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat. The CRPF, SoG Odisha, and Chhattisgarh Police neutralised 14 Naxalites in a joint operation along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. With our resolve for a Naxal-free…

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) January 21, 2025 So, why is the government so jubilant about his death?Who was Chalapati?Chalapati was a military ideologue and mentor to Madvi Hidma, commander of the CPI(Maoist)’s dreaded ‘Battalion No. 1’, responsible for many fatal ambush-attacks, including the 2010 Dantewada massacre that killed 75 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.Hailing from Matempaipally village in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, 62-year-old Chalapati joined the Naxal movement in 1990-91. He quickly ascended through the ranks, becoming highly influential in the banned CPI(Maoist).Known by various aliases such as Ramachandra Reddy, Pratap Reddy, Appa Rao and Ravi Jayram, Chalapati operated in the shadows. For the longest time, security agencies did not even have a photograph of him until they stumbled upon a vital lead recently.He led the Maoist attack in Odisha’s Nayagarh district in 2008 in which 13 security personnel were killed.He was the secretary of the Odisha state committee at the time of his death. Over the past few years, he was holed up at Darbha in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, located near the Odisha border, as he couldn’t travel much due to his persistent knee pain, say cops.Chalapati was recognised within the outfit for his intellectual prowess, military tactics and expertise in guerrilla warfare. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r A polyglot with extensive reading habitsAs one of seven leaders in the central committee, the highest authority in the CPI(Maoist), Chalapati had strong ideological foundations and supervised operations in the Odisha division.Proficient in Telugu, Odia, Hindi and English, and known for his extensive reading habits, Chalapati successfully evaded capture during numerous firefights in the Kandhamal-Boudh-Kalahandi forest region.In 2022, he and 45 followers from Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh established a camp in Odisha’s Kandhamal to strengthen the Maoist presence. However, his plan was foiled by the Odisha police.How he rose through the ranks“His connection to the People’s War Group (PWG) of CPI(Marxist-Leninist) began in the 1970s when he was a minor. A school dropout, he joined the Naxal movement in Srikakulam, advancing rapidly from a party member to divisional committee member,” says a senior police officer.In December 2000, he was promoted to special zonal committee member and included in the “state military commission” of the Andhra Odisha border special zonal committee (AOBSZC), according to police sources.Three years later, the PWG, then operating in Andhra Pradesh, and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI), which had been active in Bihar and adjoining areas, merged to form the CPI(Maoist).Chalapati also faced disciplinary actions, including his temporary suspension from the rebel outfit in 2010 for being in a relationship with Aruna alias Chaitanya Venkat Ravi, a deputy commander of AOBSZC, whom he subsequently married.Then in 2012, a technical error leading to a cadre’s death resulted in his demotion within the organisation. medium117521640How a selfie craze led to his identificationBack in June 2016, the Vizag Rural police finally got a clear idea of how Chalapati and his wife Aruna, the deputy commander of the Koraput-Srikakulam division committee, looked. This breakthrough came after they retrieved a recent photograph of the couple from a laptop belonging to slain Maoist leader Azad.Azad, who was Aruna’s brother, was killed along with two other Naxals in an encounter with Greyhounds personnel at Marripakulu in Koyyuru mandal of Visakhapatnam district on May 4 that year. The recovered photograph, most likely taken by Azad on a smartphone, provided police with their first clear image of Chalapati in decades. He appeared to be in his 50s, while Aruna seemed to be in her 40s, according to police sources.Until then, authorities had only a blurry photograph of Chalapati from the 1990s and had no idea what he looked like two decades later. Armed with the recent image, police quickly circulated it across areas, hoping it would lead to his capture.Police say the Maoist central committee had long issued strict instructions to its leaders to avoid any photographic evidence, fearing it could fall into the hands of law enforcement agencies and compromise their safety and location. However, this rare lapse proved costly, giving security forces a valuable lead in their hunt for the elusive Maoist leader. medium117521702A big blow to Maoists?An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer claims that Chalapati’s killing will further erode the “ideological base” of the outfit comprising older, committed and educated cadres hailing from Andhra Pradesh.Over the past few years, the strength of the CPI(Maoist) politburo has reduced significantly owing to the arrest and killing of several leaders.“Barring a few leaders from Jharkhand, the politburo/CC [central committee] members hail from Andhra Pradesh. As they bow out with age, CPI(Maoist)’s next line of leadership will essentially be gun-wielding fighters with low ideological affinity. This sets the stage for weakening of the Maoist movement, and sits well with the goal to end Naxalism by March 2026,” says an officer.With inputs from Rajesh Sharma, Debabrata Mohapatra and Siva G