Spinal cord of Maoism is broken now: CM Fadnavis

Sixty one Maoists including a top cadre Bhupati alias Sonu laid down weapons in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday (October 15, 2025) in Gadchiroli.

“The spinal cord of Maoism is broken now. The battle against Maoism is in its last stage now. We are hopeful that other cadres will also surrender in the coming days. The next challenge is that of urban Naxalism,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in Gadchiroli, declaring an award of ₹1 crore for the Gadchiroli Police after appreciating the efforts of the C60 commandos.

The surrendered cadres included prominent central committee member of CPI (Maoist) Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Bhupati (70), two State zonal committee members, 10 divisional committee members and cadres from Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. They handed over 54 weapons, including seven AK47s, six SLRs and six INSAS rifles. Bhupati’s surrender comes months after his wife Tarakka, alias Vimala Sidam, also a Maoist leader, turned herself in. His sister-in-law had surrendered in front of the Telangana Police.

While congratulating the Gadchiroli Police for the success, CM Fadnavis said, “For a month, our forces were involved in negotiations and talks on one hand, and on anti-Maoist operations on the other. Consistent efforts were being put in to convince him to surrender. It was also made clear that the operations will not end. He was convinced. He even made a public declaration that Maoism is already over, and that there is no alternative apart from surrendering. We believe that a few cadres in Chhattisgarh will also surrender now.”

Surrender before the CM

Mr. Fadnavis said that Bhupati had told them that he would like to surrender before the Chief Minister only. “Even if he would have called me in the jungle, I would have gone. But this has been done in the Gadchiroli police headquarter. I postponed all my programmes to come here immediately. The police had given him a word that the CM will himself come for the surrender. So I came,” he said.

He claimed that the step was taken because of the confidence in the government that mainstreaming of surrendered Maoists did take place. He said that many of them were doing jobs in Gadchiroli in infrastructure projects, and were earning ₹50,000 per month.