CPI (Maoist) loses another key member

THe demise of CPI (Maoist) telephone exchange citizens committee fellow member Paka Hanumanthu assumed name Ganesh Uike in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Gasma forest area in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Thursday, has further deprived the party of its intellectual base, people familiar with the matter said.With the death of 69-year-old Hanumanthu, who hails from Pullemla village of Chandur mandal in Telangana’s Nalgonda district, the outlawed party is now left with only two active leaders from Telugu states in the top hierarchy — party general secretary Thippiri Tirupati alias Devji and Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram, for whom security forces are searching.Another top leader Muppalla Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi, who headed the party for a long time, has been inactive since 2018.“Hanumanthu, who had been underground since 1982, was a low-profile leader but was one of the important pillars of the CPI (Maoist), particularly in providing training to the cadres on the ideology, besides of course in military operations,” a former state intelligence official said, on condition of anonymity.Known by several proxy names, including Ganesh Uike, Rajesh Tiwari and Chamru dada, Hanumanthu has been associated with the movement since the days of CPI (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War, founded by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah in 1980.Hanumanthu was the eldest of six children born to Paka Chandrayya and Papamma of Pullamla village. “He left for the movement in 1982 itself and since then, he had been dedicated to the cause. He had not come to the native place when his father died three years ago and mother one-and-a-half years ago,” said Hanumanthu’s brother-in-law L Pradeep told Hindustan Times.The Maoist leader studied up to Intermediate in Chandur and later pursued a BSc degree at NG College in Nalgonda.During his college days, he served as general secretary of the Radical Students Union (RSU), a period marked by frequent clashes between RSU and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).Following the 1982 murder of ABVP leader Achyuta Srinivas, in which police named Hanumanthu as an accused, he reportedly discontinued his studies and went underground, following a call given by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah. He steadily rose through the ranks to become the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member.Hanumanthu played a key role in leading Maoist activities across Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and was involved in several violent incidents in these states. After the death of senior Maoist leader Nambala Keshava Rao, Hanumanthu served as the Odisha Central Committee member in charge of southern states.He was also one of the key figures who spearheaded the Maoist movement in the Andhra–Odisha Border (AOB) region. Hanumanthu was a prime accused in the 2013 Darbha Valley attack in Chhattisgarh, in which senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and 22 others were killed.He is believed to have led or orchestrated several major Maoist attacks in Odisha.As almost all the top leaders of the CPI (Maoist) got either killed in encounters or were forced to surrender to the police following Operation Kagar in the last one year, pressure had been mounting on Hanumanthu as well to surrender to the police.“In October this year, I along with a few other family members, went to Kandhamal with a hope to reach out to my brother-in-law with the help of local reporters and a few police officers, and appeal to him to surrender and join the mainstream. But we could not meet him,” Pradeep, who is married to Hanumanthu’s younger sister Manjula, said.He said he had left a message to Hanumanthu, requesting him to lay down arms and surrender to the government, following other top leaders of the party. “We were hoping that the message would reach him, but on Thursday afternoon, we got the message that my brother-in-law was killed in the encounter,” he said.The family members are now waiting at Kandhamal to receive the body of Hanumanthu and bring it to his native place to perform last rites.