Late Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, the man who propelled the extreme left wing movement in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in the later half of last century, shared many parallels with Muppala Lakshmana Rao aka Ganapathy, the youth he groomed. Seetharamaiah was a school teacher; so was Ganapathy. Seetharamaiah, a Reddy and Ganapathy, a Velama, belong to politically dominant upper castes. While Seetharamaiah was instrumental in the formation of CPI-ML People’s War (PW) in 1980, Ganapathy was responsible for the unification of multiple Maoist groups and gave a new name for the outfit—CPI (Maoist)—2004. Both headed the banned outfits in succession. In early 1990s, Seetharamaiah stepped down from the top post when he was in his early 70s. Two years ago, Ganapathy too went through a similar drill when he was around the same age. It is believed that Seetharamaiah, who was plagued by ill-health, surrendered to the police in less than two years after he was out of the most powerful position in the party.
Going by various source-based media reports, Ganapathy too is looking to follow his predecessor, less than two years after he was replaced. Once a most-wanted Maoist in the country, Ganapathy is learnt to be suffering from arthritis and other health problems, since years.
So, is history repeating itself?
The CPI (Maoist) party issued a press release as the discussions about the possible surrender became shriller. Signed by spokesperson of the central committee, Abhay, the statement blamed the BJP government, state governments and intelligence agencies for the entire episode and called it a “conspiracy” to divert the attention of the population from genuine issues and also defame their leadership.
“Comrade Ganapathy had voluntarily took the decision to quit the party’s general secretary responsibility two years ago due to age and common ailments. It is a common thing in everybody’s life. It has no relation with this brutal lie,” read part of the press release, making it clear that the Maoist leader will not surrender.
High ranking police officers in Telangana officially deny that they are in touch with Ganapathy or cooperating with him for his surrender. However, they also do not seem to be averse to the idea, giving an impression that they are open to welcoming him to the mainstream world.
There are different versions on how it all started. While one version is that intercepts by the intelligence agency revealed that Ganapathy is keen to come out of hiding and seek medical treatment as he was very sick, another suggests that his close aides approached the government to work out a deal for his surrender. None of these could be verified.
Some reports are still doing the rounds that he will surrender along with a few other top leaders.
Senior police officials, his one-time acquaintances and analysts find it hard to believe that Ganapathy is ready to surrender as he was known to be too seeped in the party ideology, so much so that he did not flinch when the blood of his own family, relatives and community members were splattered even as he strengthened the party and rose through its ranks.
Ganapathy, a degree holder, hails from Beerpur village, part of erstwhile Karimnagar district in north Telangana. Apart from being home to the top-most Maoist leader in the country, the village will go down in state’s history for being the venue of the first-ever landmine blast.
On August 31, 1989, a local landlord in Beerpur was killed by a Naxal party and his body was placed in the village crossroads as a warning to those indulging in feudal practices. The deceased was Ganapathy’s own brother’s father-in-law. There was a follow-up plan too. A landmine was placed on the road leading to Beerpur village by the Naxals prior to the attack. The idea was to target a local police officer, a distant relative of Ganapathy, as he was expected to take that route to visit the village to enquire about the murderous attack. In a few hours, as the members lay waiting, a jeep drove on to the road. Confusing it to be a police jeep, in the wee hours, the Naxals triggered the landmine blast. A total of 12 civilians died in the blast, almost all of them close relatives of Ganapathy. They were on their way to visit the bereaved family. Ganapathy was a state committee member of the party then. Later, the PW issued an apology for the incident. At that time, Ganapathy is learnt to have conveyed that his party was above everything else and did not dwell much into the issue.
In the same year, Naxals, for the first time, killed a public representative. Malhar Rao was a mandal parishat president (MPP) from former Karimanagar district and belonged to the same community as Ganapathy. He was abducted and killed after the state government failed to concede to demands put forth by the radical group. In the previous years and also subsequent to the killing, feudals and landlords in rural areas were targeted and driven away from villages or killed. Many of them belonged to Ganapathy’s community.
In 1992, it is believed that he opposed Seetharamaiah, the founder of the organisation, and replaced him as state secretary as he felt that the movement would lose its way under his leadership owing to his old age. In the coming years, under Ganapathy, the outfit turned more aggressive. Apart from policemen, a number of lawmakers also died in various attacks. They include Panchayat raj minister A Madhava Reddy in 2000, former Speaker Sripada Rao and MLA Palvai Purushottam Rao in 1999. In 2003, there was an attempt on the life of the then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Alipiri in Tirupati.
It was under Ganapathy’s leadership as state general secretary of PW and later, general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), that the force acquired sophisticated weaponry and reportedly, and received advanced training from foreign organisations. The party also expanded rapidly covering neighbouring regions of Telangana.
Taking shelters and changing hideouts in Nallamalla forests, Andhra-Orissa Border (AOB) and interiors of Chhattisgarh, Ganapathy, at the helm, shaped the Maoist movement for more than 25 years.
Experts feel that it is highly unlikely that Ganapathy will have a change of mind and give himself to the state. For the party, which is facing existential crisis, sending their biggest icon and architect to be a part of the system which they opposed—killed and got killed in doing so—will only further lower the morale of the cadre.
