Last remaining Maoist commander Papa Rao surrenders in Chhattisgarh

Kawardha: One of the last remaining senior Maoist commanders, Papa Rao, surrendered along with his team members on Tuesday, marking a significant milestone in Chhattisgarh’s fight against Left Wing Extremism, officials said here.

The surrender underscores the waning fortunes of one of the country’s longest-running insurgencies, as a combination of security pressure and rehabilitation efforts chips away at the movement’s core, they said.

The development comes just a week before the Central government’s March 31 deadline to end LWE.

Operating for over two decades in the dense Indravati-“Abujhmad forest belt, a once-formidable redoubt of the insurgency, Papa Rao was among the last prominent commanders of the insurgent network associated with the CPI(Maoist) who masterminded a number of deadly attacks on security forces in south Bastar region including the Tadmetla attack in 2010, wherein 76 troopers were killed.

Earlier this morning, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said that Rao, also known as Mangu, who is active in the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) of Maoists, will surrender along with more than a dozen team members in the Bastar region.

The DKSZC, which handles Maoist activities in the Bastar division and parts of adjoining states, was considered the strongest formation of the outlawed outfit and had been instrumental in executing several deadly attacks on security forces in the past two decades.

“Once it is done, no Naxal operative of that senior rank will remain active in Chhattisgarh, and the state is set to be free of armed Naxalism by the stipulated deadline of March 31, 2026,” Sharma, who also holds the Home portfolio, said hours before the formal surrender.

The surrender marked not just the exit of a senior figure but a broader unravelling of the Maoist network linked to the CPI(Maoist), which for years sustained a parallel authority across swathes of central India, the officials said.

The “Red Corridor”, an arc that once stretched from “Pashupati to Tirupati” across Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra and parts of Andhra Pradesh, was considered the “gravest internal security challenge” to the country, where governance was attenuated, and the Maoists cultivated both coercion and consent among marginalised communities, they said.

According to official data on LWE, since 2014, over 10,000 cadres have surrendered nationwide, with 2,300 laying down arms in 2025 alone. More than 630 have surrendered in the first three months of 2026, the data showed.

The surrenders indicate a sharp collapse of organisational morale within the Maoist ranks, particularly pronounced in Chhattisgarh and Telangana, where hundreds of cadres have chosen to give up arms in the past year, the officials said.

The downward trajectory of the guerrilla movement over the past decade tells a story of one of sustained political resolve, coordinated security operations, development outreach, and effective rehabilitation policies, resulting in a steady rise in the number of Maoist cadres surrendering and returning to the democratic mainstream, they added.

Security officials describe the trend as a “cascading effect”, in which high-profile defections erode the movement’s aura of permanence.

Deputy CM Sharma said Papa Rao had been active for nearly 25 years and involved in multiple encounters, but had managed to escape each time.

More surrenders are expected in the coming week as part of the ongoing rehabilitation efforts, he added.

Rao had carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head.

As part of a comprehensive strategy pursued by the Union and state governments, security forces, including the CRPF and its elite CoBRA unit, sustained a campaign of intelligence-led operations, tightening the net around insurgent strongholds.

The strategy aligns with the government’s multi-pronged approach under the SAMADHAN doctrine, focusing on intelligence-led operations, improved mobility, infrastructure expansion, and modernising police forces to bring bureaucratic coherence to a historically fragmented effort, the officials said.

At the same time, Chhattisgarh has sought to extend its presence in more quotidian ways with financial and logistical support from the Centre, strengthening state capabilities through programmes like the Security Related Expenditure Scheme, which assists states in covering operational costs in LWE-affected districts, they said.

Many districts once deeply affected by insurgency have been part of the Aspirational Districts Programme, which focuses on improving health, education, infrastructure and livelihood opportunities.

Besides, roads have been pushed deeper into these forested districts, mobile towers have risen, and fortified police stations now dot areas that were previously inaccessible. The extension of banking services, rural roads and digital connectivity has brought remote tribal regions closer to mainstream governance.

Sharma said members at the party and area committee levels of the Maoists are no longer engaged in armed activities in Chhattisgarh and have largely settled down.

“They have laid down their arms and given up uniforms,” he pointed out.

Only a few remaining names linked to Chhattisgarh are currently active in Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) or Telangana. Efforts are also underway there to facilitate their surrender, the minister said.

The most consequential factor leading to the constriction of the violent movement has been the recalibration of rehabilitation policy. The revised Surrender-cum-Rehabilitation Scheme for Left Wing Extremists provides financial assistance, skill development training and housing support for former cadres who gave up violence.

Former insurgents have, in some cases, re-emerged as farmers, small entrepreneurs or community intermediaries, their trajectories illustrating the state’s attempt to convert adversaries into stakeholders.