There is a lull in the activities of the CPI (Maoist) in the Visakha Agency, some areas of which are strongholds of the banned party, while violent incidents are being reported from Odisha close to the Andhra Pradesh border.
The martyrs’ week this year was confined to the interior areas, and top Naxalite leaders such as Ganesh, Krishna, and Azad were reportedly moving on the Odisha side. The Maoists are concentrating on the anti-bauxite movement of the Girijans, which seems to be the only major plank for the party.
The party does not believe in Union Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo’s move to block bauxite mining or State Tribal Welfare Minister P. Balaraju.
Extensive combing by the police and paramilitary forces, decline in the number of supporters and militia, who provide logistic support, loss of six members in two encounters in Chintapalli and Koyyuru mandals in 2010 and, very recently,
Galikonda area committee commander Krishna and several others escaping by a whisker at Yerracheruvulu, and arrest of Lambayy and four other active members at Marripakala village five months ago, resulted in the party keeping quiet.
Jolt to Maoists
The arrest of Chedda Bhushanam and surrender of Nandu along with his wife, both important leaders in the Andhra Orissa Border special zonal committee, who have good knowledge of the area and are good strategists and executors of plans, certainly troubled the party.
The police and those watching the developments in the Agency are not expecting the Maoists to keep quiet for long.
CM to visit Agency
It is like calm before the storm, and the important task on hand is to ensure the smooth conduct of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s programmes in the Visakha Agency, which he is expected to visit in the next fortnight.
