NEW DELHI: Ramchandra Reddy Pratap Reddy alias Chalapati was essentially a military ideologue and mentor to Madvi Hidma, commander of CPI (Maoist) armed wing PLGA’s dreaded ‘Battalion No. 1’ responsible for many fatal ambush-attacks, including the 2010 Dantewada massacre that killed 75 CRPF jawans.
Sources in central security agencies described the elimination of Chalapati — the first central committee member to be killed in an anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh, according to Gariaband SP Nikhil Rakhecha — as a significant milestone in weakening the CPI (Maoist) leadership as the Centre sets out to realise its goal of uprooting Left-wing extremism by March 31, 2026.
Home minister Amit Shah posted on ‘X’ on Tuesday: “Another mighty blow to Naxalism. Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat…”
A senior IPS officer told TOI that Chalapati’s elimination, apart from reducing the strength of CPI (Maoist) central committee, will further erode the “ideological base” of the outfit comprising older, committed and educated cadres hailing from Andhra Pradesh.
While the CPI (Maoist) politburo has shrunk with the arrest of members Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da in 2021 and Pramod Mishra in 2023, and killing of Kattakam Sudarshan in 2023, the strength has been reduced to 17-18 members with the arrest/ killing/ death of members like Sheela Marandi, Kanchanda, Mithilesh Mehta, Milind Teltumbde, B G Krishnamurthy, Haribhushan and Akkiraju Haragopal and now, Chalapati.
“Barrring a few leaders from Jharkhand, the politburo/ CCM members hail from Andhra Pradesh. As they bow out with age, CPI (Maoist)’s next line of leadership will essentially be gun-wielding fighters with low ideological affinity. This sets the stage for weakening of the Maoist movement, and sits well with the goal to end Naxalism by March 2026,” said an officer.
