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One of the most important leaders of the Maoist movement, Nambala Keshava Rao, also known as Basavaraju, was killed in an anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh on May 21 at the age of 72. Basavaraju was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
In the words of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Basavaraju was the “topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement.”
Security forces also killed 26 other Maoists in the Abujhmad forest area of Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, on May 21, Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said. Calling Basavaraju’s killing a “major breakthrough”, Amit Shah said this was the first time in three decades that a Maoist leader in the rank of general secretary was killed by security forces.
General secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPIM-L) Charu Majumdar had died in police custody in 1972.
The killings were announced after days of anti-Maoist crackdown in the Karreguttalu hills on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border. At least 31 Naxalites were killed in this operation known as Operation Black Forest, according to the government.
Who was Basavaraju, whose death is being celebrated as a “landmark achievement” by the Union government?
Basavaraju has served as the general secretary of CPI(Maoist) party since 2018, taking over from Ganapathi, another major figure of the Maoist movement. He was 65 then.
Prior to it, he was the chief of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the party’s main armed body. He was also a leader of the Central Committee, since the formation of the CPI (Maoist) party after the CPI-ML (People's War Group) and the MCCI (Maoist Communist Centre of India) merged in 2004.
He was also part of the Standing Committee and the editorial board of the party publication ‘Awam-e-Jung’.
Born on July 10, 1955, in Jiyannapet in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, Basavaraju is said to have completed his schooling in Tekkali in the same district. His journey with political and revolutionary movements began as a student leader with the now-banned Radical Students Union (RSU). He was one of RSU’s founding members, which was established in 1974, recalled Narla Ravi, an ex-RSU leader himself and a former Jharkhand state committee member of CPI (Maoist), in a Facebook post.
Basavaraju studied at the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, which is now a National Institute of Technology (NIT).
“In Warangal, he played a key militant role against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)’s hooliganism and communal politics. He significantly contributed to making REC known as the ‘Radical Engineering College’,” Narla Ravi wrote.
He went underground during the Emergency in the mid-1970s, and never resurfaced, according to Ravi.
“While living underground in Warangal, he worked as a porter for a few months to organise the local laborers. In 1980, when the party decided to send squads into the forests, he was sent as the commander of the first squad to East Godavari district under the name ‘Ganganna’. Gradually, he became deeply involved in building the Dandakaranya movement. He was first elected to the Forest Liaison Committee and later to the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee. For several years, he served as the secretary of the Dandakaranya committee under the name Ganganna,” Ravi recalled.
As chief of the Central Military Commission, Basavaraju played a key role in establishing various armed units, such as the People’s Guerrilla Army in 2000, and the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in 2004. As commander of the PLGA, he personally trained squads across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Dandakaranya, and participated directly in military actions, Ravi noted.
Basavaraju was known by many aliases, including Gaganna, Prakash, Krishna, Vijay, Keshav, Raju, and Umesh, according to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which had put him on its ‘Most Wanted’ list.
In 1987, Basavaraju reportedly received training from former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in ambush tactics and explosives along with senior Maoist leaders including Ganapathi.
He was accused in the 2003 claymore mine attack against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Alipiri near Tirupati. He is also alleged to have led the 2010 Dantewada attack in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed.
He is believed to have orchestrated the 2013 Jheeram Ghati attack in which 29 people including senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma, the founder of Salwa Judum, a state-sponsored anti-Maoist militia, were killed.
He has also been accused of carrying out the 2018 killings of TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former Araku MLA Siveri Soma in Andhra Pradesh’s Araku valley in Visakhapatnam district, and the 2008 Balimela boat attack in which 37 Greyhounds police personnel were killed.
Several other major incidents also happened allegedly under his leadership. They include the 2018 Sukma blast in which nine CRPF personnel were killed, the 2019 Gadchiroli blast in which 15 police personnel and their civilian driver were killed, the 2021 Sukma-Bijapur incident in which 22 policemen were killed, the 2023 Datewada blast in which 10 DRG personnel and a civilian driver were killed, and the 2025 Bijapur blast in which eight DRG members and a civilian driver were killed.
Narla Ravi said that before his killing on May 21, he had a close shave with police forces nearly 40 years ago in 1986, when a Special Task Force (STF) officer tried to arrest him, but Basavaraju escaped after opening fire.
He was arrested only once in 1979 over a clash between members of RSU and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at his college in which a student died, and was released on bail, according to reports.
During the 1980s, he is said to have worked in the tribal regions of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, establishing the Rythu Coolie Sangham along with Cherukuri Rajkumar or Azad, another senior Maoist leader killed by the Andhra Pradesh police in 2010.
According to Indian Express, intelligence documents describe Basavaraju as a clean shaven man who regularly dyes his hair, and walks briskly carrying an AK 47.
Left parties demand judicial inquiry
Leaders from Left parties and others have expressed concerns over the extrajudicial killings, questioning if there were unarmed local residents among those killed in the crackdown. They also demanded a judicial inquiry into the entire operation.
The operation had personnel drawn from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Special Task Force (STF), and District Reserve Guard (DRG). It was DRG personnel who killed Basavaraju on May 21, a force made up of local recruits, including tribal youth and surrendered Maoists.
Amit Shah said that after the completion of Operation Black Forest, 54 Naxalites have been arrested and 84 Naxalites have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
“The Modi government is resolved to eliminate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026,” Amit Shah said.
The Coordination Committee for Peace (CCP), which has been advocating for peace talks between the Maoists and the government, has condemned the killings.
“While celebrating [Basavaraju’s] death as a blow to the Maoists, there appears to be no effort at initiating ceasefire and peace talks, revealing a lack of sincerity and military approach in the government's stand,” the CCP said in a statement.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) New Democracy have also condemned the “extrajudicial killings” of Basavaraju and the others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government is “committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism.”
The CCP criticised the celebration of the killings by the Union government and the media as a victory.
“This killing is hailed by the media and the state as a major setback for the Maoists and a success of the state's military might, projected as the viable approach to the Maoist movement, day by day, making a mockery of the call for peace talks,” the committee said.
Raising questions over the numbers of armed Naxals and unarmed local residents killed in the anti-Maoist operations, the Committee demanded “an impartial inquiry into the operation that resulted in the death of 31 persons, several of whom are suspected to be villagers and some even minors.”
“In line with international humanitarian principles, we urgently call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire from the Government of India to reciprocate the Maoists unilateral declaration of a ceasefire,” the committee said.
The Central Committee of CPI(ML) New Democracy also demanded an immediate end to the anti-Maoist operations.
A statement from them said despite the CPI (Maoist) declaring a unilateral ceasefire and offering unconditional peace talks, the government resorted to killings. This shows that they are not for peace but for violent suppression and to open up the mineral rich regions for corporate plunder, it said.
The party also demanded a judicial inquiry into the deaths.
CPI General Secretary D Raja questioned why the Maoists weren’t arrested instead of being killed and also demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.