Close on the heels of Operation Black Forest, police claimed to have killed top Maoist leader Nambala Keshava Rao aka Basavaraju along with 27 other Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur in an operation hailed as a “landmark achievement” by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism. Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the…
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 21, 2025
CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju was a prominent figure in India's Maoist insurgency and was implicated in several high-profile attacks attributed to the Maoists. These included the 2010 Dantewada ambush in Chhattisgarh, where 76 CRPF personnel were killed, the 2013 Jeeram Ghati attack, which resulted in the deaths of 27 individuals, including senior Congress leaders, and the 2018 assassination of Andhra Pradesh legislators Kidari Sarveswara Rao and Siveri Soma.
Basavaraju had taken over from the former general secretary CPI (Maoist) general secretary Ganpathy in 2017 – the outfit announced this in 2018. He was seen as the No. 2 within the Maoist movement until the announcement.
Born in 1955 in Jiyannapet village of Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district, Basavaraju pursued engineering at the Regional Engineering College in Warangal (now NIT Warangal). During his college years, Rao became actively involved in left-wing student politics through the Radical Students Union, marking the beginning of his gradual association with the Naxalite movement.
His role in Maoist strategy and operations made him one of India's most wanted individuals, with a cumulative bounty exceeding Rs 10 crore. His killing also comes in the wake of the centre’s goal to make India “Maoist-free” by March 31 next year.
ToI points to ‘giant stride’, Dainik Jagran slams ‘urban Naxals’
Asking the central and state governments to keep up the security and development measures, an editorial in The Indian Express noted, “The political will to counter the insurgents has firmed up – increasing inroads made by the security forces owe to greater coordination between the security forces of the Centre and the state. A network of base camps has ended the security vacuum in the forested areas, and at the same time, roads and mobile towers have put large parts of Maoist-affected areas on the developmental map. The state government has also started a policy of rehabilitating Maoists who surrender – they are provided houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, skill development programmes have special provisions for them, and companies are given incentives to hire former LWEs.”
The Times of India noted that by eliminating Basavaraju, “GOI has taken a giant stride towards its goal of ridding the country of Naxalism by March 31 next year. The fact that this successful operation – in which 26 other Maoists were killed – was carried out close on the heels of the 21-day Operation Black Forest that resulted in the arrest of 54 Naxals and the surrender of 84 others, shows the increasing momentum of govt’s assault on the last strongholds of Naxals.”
Meanwhile, an editorial in Dainik Jagran said it is surprising that “some fake progressives and pseudo-humanists sympathise with the Maoists and give them ideological support. Along with being cautious of such elements called Urban Naxals, it should be understood that the Maoists are the enemies of the poor and the deprived whose welfare they falsely take shelter under.”
The killing was reported on the front pages of prominent dailies.
A few global outlets also carried the news.
The Financial Times reported that “India has this year been carrying out one of its most extensive counter-insurgency operations yet against the Maoist rebels”. “Recent security operations by the Modi government have significantly weakened the Naxalites’ reach and capabilities. India claims its paramilitary police have killed dozens of rebels this year in what it calls ‘encounters’, or gun battles, in Chhattisgarh, the heart of rebel activity. Shah said that “Operation Black Forest” led to the arrest of 54 Naxalites and surrender of another 84 across in the three states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra. Rao was killed in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district.”
A report in The New York Times mentioned that “human rights activists have warned of the possibility that innocent civilians have been killed in the campaign against the rebels. Bela Bhatia, a lawyer who works in regions affected by the insurgency, said that while rapid identification of the bodies by family members was crucial, the government often took days to present corpses. She also said that when the Indian government claimed to have killed insurgents, it was unclear if ‘the killed Maoists surrendered and were then killed, or if they died in an encounter’.”
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