During every general elections, the banned CPI (Maoist) see it as an opportunity to revive their movement by calling for boycott of the polls. Being the election year, it was crucial and challenging, both for security forces and the Left Wing Extremists (LWE). But contrary to the previous elections, the turnout was huge in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam district, where the Maoist are said to hold a sway.
Across the Agency, including the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) region, where for the first time election booths were set up, the turnout of voters was between 64% and 74%, which was a record in the Maoist heartland. This despite the LWE calling for a boycott of the election. The security forces see this as a success for them.
An analysis of events over the years suggests that the Maoists appear to be losing their grip over the area and the security forces are gaining ground.
Basically, the AOBSZC (Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee), which is the key body of the Maoists in this region, comprise two divisions -- East Malkangiri Division (EMD) led by Aruna who was in the forefront in the attack in which Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma were killed in 2018, and MKVB (Malkangiri Koraput Visakhpatnam Border) Division, which is led by Krishna.
While EMD is the mainstay in the Visakha agency area, MKVB primarily focusses on Odisha and cut-off area.
Going by numbers, surrenders and encounters, EMD has weakened considerably over the years and in this year it suffered heavily both in terms of surrenders and encounters.
The main area committee of the Maoist under EMD is Galikonda, which covers the areas of GK Veedhi, Sileru and Koyyuru, and it has been suffering serious blows since 2016.
In 2016, its commander Azad alias Gopal was killed, his successor Gemmeli Narayan Rao alias Jambri was killed in 2017, and since then it has been without a leader, and the Maoist movement hit an all time low.
To revive the movement, the Maoist top command merged the Nandapur area committee with Galikonda and appointed Aruna and Randev to lead the movement, according to Superintendent of Police, Visakhapatnam, Attada Babujee.
But in 2019, the movement in Galikonda suffered a huge setback with the surrender of over 19 key members, including four ACM and one DCM rank leaders. This was followed by a heavy exchange of fire in Pemulagondhi area of GK Veedhi in September, in which five senior members of the Maoist third platoon were killed by the security forces.
This has almost crippled the Galikonda area committee and as per intelligence sources, Aruna, Randev and others are pushed to Odisha side of the cut-off area.
Patronage on wane
The other factor is the decreasing patronage from the tribal side and the government schemes and outreach programmes of the police reaching the tribal hinterland.
As per Mr. Babujee, about 1800 tribal youth were trained at skill development centres and given jobs and over 150 have qualified as constables.
The security forces have also made deep inroads into the forest areas. With the setting up of the Armed Outpost at Nurmati in G. Madugula panchayat in this year, the number of AOPs in Visakha agency goes to four. This apart, Odisha government has set up two at Jathai and Santhalaguda in the Chitrakonda area.
Despite lying low, the Maoists are not out. In this year, the LWE killed five tribals in different areas between August and October, after branding them as police informers. This has become counter productive to their ‘striking fear’ strategy, as tribals have openly opposed the killing.
