Maoists face leadership crisis

18 December 2011

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 18 DEC: Following the killing of senior Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter with the security forces on 24 November at Burisole forest in West Midnapore, Maoists are now facing a leadership crisis, especially for their eastern regional bureau.
The outfit is now trying hard to reorganise its base, especially ahead of its 10th Party Congress slated for 2012. During the conference, the outfit is likely to bring in new faces in place of its slain or captured leaders. Sources in the Intelligence agencies indicated that the Party Congress might have little choice but to induct second-rung, younger leaders in the new Politburo and central committee.
The de-facto CPI(Maoist) Politburo, excluding the arrested members, is now a seven-member body, comprising general-secretary Mupalla Laxman Rao alias Ganapathy from Karimnagar, Nambala Keshav Rao from Srikakulam, Kattam Sudarshan alias Birenderji from Adilabad, Mallojula Venugopal (brother of Kishenji) from Karimnagar, Misir Besra from Jharkhand, Prashant Bose alias Kishanda from Jadavpur, and Malla Raji Reddy from Karimnagar. 
Of the remaining Politburo members selected in 2007, Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad, was killed in July 2010 and Kishenji on 24 November. The jailed leaders include Pramod Mishra (arrested in May 2008 from Dhanbad), Akhilesh Yadav (arrested in June 2011 from Gaya), Amitabh Bagchi (arrested in August 2009 from Ranchi), Kobad Ghandy (arrested in September 2009 from Delhi), Baccha Prasad Singh (arrested in February 2010 from Kanpur), Narayan Sanyal (arrested in January 2006) and Sushil Roy (arrested in May 2005 from Hooghly). Central agencies are keenly watching whether Maoists will drop these imprisoned leaders from the new Politburo in 2012.
The series of killings or arrests of members of the Maoist Central Committee (CC) and different action squad leaders this year is an indication that the core principle of counter-insurgency strategy is to hit the leadership, a senior officer of Counter Insurgency Force (CIF) said.
A Maoist leader said: “The fake encounter that killed Kishenji is unfortunate and no doubt it is a blow to our party”. According to sources, “in the outfit, he is the founder of, and master at, the practice of organising or infiltrating mass movements and later converting them into violent struggles. He has done this successfully in many places in West Bengal. Within the outfit, he also headed the sub-committee on Political Education”.