ill three months ago, they rarely missed an opportunity to be among people. Now, Telangana State legislators, especially those belonging to the ruling Telanga Rashtra Samiti, from Maoist-affected districts, are not comfortable about moving in their own constituencies.
The attempts at a resurgence by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Telangana, once its stronghold, changed the situation. From being leaders, who can freely mingle with people in any corner of the constituency, they are now forced to be confined to the capital of the State or headquarters of their districts or constituencies.
Threat perception of the TRS leaders and other leaders has been swinging from ‘completely safe’ to ‘danger’ since the Maoists started attempting to regain their lost ground in Telangana over the past one year.
“TRS leaders from the city and urban areas had no problem but those from rural areas of Maoist-affected districts like Warangal and Khammam had to be cautious from the beginning. All that suddenly changed with the death of Maoists Sruthi and Vidya Sagar Reddy in an exchange of fire with the police near Govindraopet of Warangal three months ago,” says an intelligence officer.
While top police officials are firm in saying that they have no option but to retaliate when they come across armed Maoists, top TRS leaders say that the ‘death of youngsters was unfortunate and such incidents would not recur.’
On October 30, Maoists shot dead a tribal youngster, Kursenga Ballal Sha, at Kheriguda of Tiryani mandal in Adilabad district, accusing him of being a police informant.
This killing of civilian apparently scared people in general and became a cause of concern to all political leaders, including people’s representatives.
The threat perception graph went up further with the Maoists ‘kidnapping’ six TRS activists at Pusuguppa three weeks ago near Charla of Khammam, close to Chhattisgarh, from where Maoists are operating a parallel government.
Tourism and Tribal Welfare Minister Azmeera Chandulal, representing the Mulugu Assembly constituency in Warangal district, had rarely visited the constituency of late. The Govindraopet area where two Maoists were killed by police three months ago falls under his constituency.
More or less, the same is the situation with other TRS legislators representing constituencies in Maoist-affected districts like Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad.
“Yes, legislators were asked to be cautious about their visits to interior parts of the State. The risk element and threat perception is high since Maoists might attempt to retaliate over the recent encounter in Warangal,” say intelligence officials.
The risk element and threat perception of MLAs is high since Maoists might attempt to retaliate over the recent Warangal encounter
Intelligence official
