HYDERABAD: A day after his close aides—politburo member Tippiri Thirupati alias Devji alias Kumma Dada and Central Committee member Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram—surrendered before the Telangana police. The whereabouts of former CPI (Maoist) general secretary Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi remain unknown. Police suspect he may be living in urban areas, but family members said they have no information on his location.
Ramachandra Rao, Ganapathi’s younger paternal uncle’s son, told reporters in Jagtial district on Wednesday that even if the octogenarian Maoist leader were to be arrested, the police should provide him protection. Stating that the CPI (Maoist) had failed to expand further, Ramachandra Rao appealed to Ganapathi to surrender, as his close aides had done.
He said Ganapathi went underground in 1983 and that no family member had met him in the past 43 years. Ganapathi had undergone BEd training in Warangal and chose to join the CPI (ML) People’s War instead of taking up a teaching job.
Given his age, Ramachandra Rao said Ganapathi should surrender.
Asked about reports suggesting Ganapathi was taking shelter in Nepal or the Philippines, Ramachandra Rao said the family had no information beyond media reports. Noting that Ganapathi faces cases in more than 10 states, he appealed to the Union government to withdraw them if Ganapathi surrendered or was arrested. He said social conditions had changed and that there was no need for the Maoist movement now, unlike when Ganapathi joined the Naxalite movement.
As the CPI (Maoist) has links with the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), an umbrella body of South Asian Maoist groups, police suspect Ganapathi may have taken shelter in Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines or Sri Lanka.
Police sources said Ganapathi attended a politburo meeting in the Abujhmarh forest area of Chhattisgarh between July 13 and August 10, 2024. He stepped down as general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) in November 2018 and handed over charge to Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, who was killed in an encounter in 2025.