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A Farewell to Arms

Siddharth Singh
/3 min read
The theatre chosen by the Maoists was a remote region of India where the sway of the government was weak. What made matters worse was a plank of the Nehruvian ideology that believed Adivasis should be ‘left alone’
A Farewell to Arms
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maoist leader Mallojula Venugopal Rao after his surrender at Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, October 15, 2025 (Photo: AFP) 

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.