In the last three years, the police in Visakhapatnam district and the security forces were successful in either killing or getting key members of the CPI(Maoist) to surrender.
In May 2016, DCM (Divisional Committee Member) of Galikonda Area Committee Gopal alias Azad was killed in an encounter. It was followed by the killing of about 31 Maoists in one single strike at Ramaguda in October the same year.
The Ramaguda incident, in which about 10 top leaders were killed, weakened the Malkangiri-Koraput-Visakhapatnam Border (MKVB) Division. This was followed by the killing of Gemmeli Narayan Rao alias Jambri, who took over after Azad’s death in the Galikonda region and was considered to be the ‘Man Friday’ for the Maoists in February 2017.
This led to a number surrenders including quite a few key members such as Vanthala Balakrishna Naidu alias Vivek (a B.Tech student), Korra Balaram alias Chitry, Korra Sathi alias Basu alias Koko and Pangi Ganesh alias Gaddhar.
The Visakhapatnam Agency has about 11 mandals, of which nine have presence of the Maoists, and the area is divided and controlled by four major area committees — Galikonda, Korukonda, Pedabayalu and MKVB.
Security forces have been claiming that the Maoist presence in the MKVB has weakened considerably after the Ramaguda incident, the killings and the surrender of key leaders of Galikonda and Korukonda. The government extending goodwill schemes to wean away the youth from joining the movement also played a role and the Maoists were facing fresh recruitment problem.
To counter this move, the Maoists have been trying hard to make their presence felt. Apart from killing a home guard constable and blasting a few IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in the last two years, they have not been able to make a major impact.
But now, with the killing of Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former TDP MLA Siveri Soma, they appear to have made an impact and it has allegedly emboldened them.
Sarveswara Rao was reportedly facing resentment among Girijans of late for a number of reasons. He was elected in 2014 on the YSR Congress Party ticket and his defection to the TDP in 2017 was not liked by many.
Moreover, though the State government scrapped the idea of bauxite mining in the Agency area temporarily, he did not come out openly for a permanent ‘no’ to it, as demanded by the tribal people.
His stand on the issue was being questioned and finally the tribal people had been allegedly agitating for the closure of his and Mr. Soma’s benami quarry mining, since long, as the quarrying was affecting their agriculture and health.
The Maoists took advantage of the mood and killed both the leaders to prove their claim that they were for the welfare of the tribal people and to lift their sagging image, said a senior officer.
