RAIPUR: Amid repeated setbacks, the strength of the politburo and Central Committee (CC) members in the decision-making body in CPI (Maoist), have dwindled from 45 to 20 during the last couple of years, and now to a single digit.
However, the Red Brigade of left-wing extremists, facing a serious leadership crisis, have simultaneously undertaken damage control exercises to fill the void created by the loss of important influential leaders.
And their mid-level or senior commanders were assigned the ranks as the frontline Maoist leaders, the intelligence sources told.
“There are barely 2-3 politburo and around half a dozen CC members remaining, taking responsibility in different regions like Abujhmad, Jharkhand, Odisha border, Amravati border and other key hideouts.
In a discreet move, the senior leaders are given positions as figureheads to show up numbers as a strength, ensuring that the morale of their cadres is not dented, a senior officer in the know-how of the development and based in Bastar region further revealed.
The Politburo & CC members are bestowed with key responsibilities, different organisational roles, besides steering military activities.
The Maoist guerrillas, after over four decades of waging war on the state and security forces, are fast losing ground, and their influence has substantially declined in the last few years.
“The Maoist organisation, under the given circumstances, are not following their customary procedures regarding promotion of their senior cadres to the politburo or as CC members, the practice firmly followed earlier. For elevation to the top position, neither proposals are sought nor general body meetings or discussions that used to happen spanning over mutiple days earlier to elevate seniors through the department promotional committee are taking place now”, the officer added.
Another reason for such a ‘make-do’ approach is that the topMaoist leaders not able to interact safely and conveniently amid existing challenges and restricted mobility.
So, the procedures the Maoists executed to make up the higher positions, remain conventionally digressed, appearing rudimentary and makeshift, TNIE learnt.
In 2025, more top Maoist leaders were killed than in any other year. The forces eliminated the general secretary of CPI (Maoist), Basava Raju alias Nambala Keshav Rao, and at least eight CC members cited to be the masterminds of several violent incidents where many jawans and innocent civilians were killed.
