Apprentice in Andhra’s PR dept who went on to become Maoist’s principal voice | Hyderabad News

HYDERABAD/NAGPUR: When Mallojula Venugopal Rao joined the state public relations division in undivided Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad as an apprentice after commencement, he couldn’t have imagined spending 35 years of his life as a Maoist outlaw.On Tuesday, as India’s five-decade battle in opposition to Left-wing extremism turned one other nook, Venugopal — recognized by aliases Bhupathi, Sonu, Vivek and Abhay — grew to become the face of what officers termed the dismantling of Maharashtra’s Maoist citadel.Bhupathi, who surrendered to Gadchiroli police with 61 different PLGA guerrillas, had one of many longest uninterrupted stints underground in the Maoist insurgency till fatigue from preventing a shedding battle caught up with him. Six months in the past, the person with a bounty of Rs 60 lakhsignalled his want for a ceasefire.Born right into a Brahmin household on May 10, 1956, in Telangana’s Peddapalli, Bhupathi was pursuing a commerce diploma when he was drawn to the Radical Students’ Union and People’s War Group, each breeding grounds for Left ideology in undivided Andhra Pradesh.His elder brother, Mallojula Koteshwar Rao, higher referred to as Kishenji, went on to become one in every of India’s most-wanted Maoist commanders earlier than being killed in Bengal in 2011.Bhupathi initially tried settling into a daily profession earlier than following his sibling’s path — one which took him to the Maoist central committee. He later rose to become a politburo member, central regional bureau secretary, and the CPI (Maoist)’s political chief.Operating out of Gadchiroli and Maad (Abujhmad) in Chhattisgarh, Bhupathi’s function advanced from discipline operations to ideological command. After Maoist spokesperson Cherukuri Rajkumar (Azad) was killed in 2010, he grew to become the insurgency’s principal voice. “As official spokesperson, he used the alias Abhay and issued statements regularly, although his influence ran far deeper,” a senior Telangana SIB officer instructed TOI. “He shaped ideological discourse, guided propaganda, and oversaw the janatana sarkar — the Maoists’ parallel governance system in Dandakaranya.”Bhupathi was instrumental in working these so-called “people’s governments” in distant forest areas, mixing political oversight with guerrilla management, making him CPI (Maoist)’s political mind.While heading PLGA’s central army fee, he upgraded guerrilla warfare manuals. He is accused of masterminding the 2011 Chintalnar bloodbath in which 76 CRPF males have been killed, and of making a insurgent base throughout the Indravati National Park.After the demise of normal secretary Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, in May 2025, Bhupathi was seen as a pure successor. But by then, the motion was in decline — a number of senior functionaries have been lifeless or captured, operations had intensified in Bastar and Gadchiroli, and cadre morale had collapsed.In inside communications later seized, Bhupathi admitted that Maoist motion was dealing with an “existential crisis,” blaming management failures & urging cadres to “rethink armed struggle.” The central committee branded him a traitor and ordered him to give up his weapons. Officials mentioned the strain he confronted earlier than surrendering uncovered deepening rifts throughout the hierarchy. In a uncommon improvement, the Maad division (North Bastar) — as soon as a Maoist stronghold — publicly backed his name to lay down arms, signalling an unprecedented rupture and the erosion of command and conviction throughout the organisation.