Representative image (IANS)
NEW DELHI: The year gone by witnessed the neutralisation of 364 Naxals by the security forces, even as 1,022 Maoists were arrested and 2,337 opted for surrender, the home ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.Replying to separate questions on the status of Left-wing extremism (LWE) in the country, junior home minister Nityanand Rai shared that the total districts that reported incidents of Maoist violence fell to 32 in 2025 from 61 in 2019, while the total number of police stations witnessing such incidents declined to 119 from 245 over the same period.He said LWE incidents showed 88% dip from a high of 1,936 in 2010 to 234 in 2025, while civilians and security personnel’s deaths in LWE incidents nosedived to 100 in 2025, which is one-tenth of those recorded in 2010.As per records accessed by TOI, the past one year saw the neutralisation of a dozen Maoists, including their No. 1 Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju. Apart from Basavaraju, who was a politburo (PB) and central committee (CC) member, 11 other CC members were killed in 2025 and early 2026. Another five CC members, including Mallojula Venugopal alias Sonu who was also in PB, surrendered and joined the mainstream last year. As of now, only 1 PB/CC member and three CC members are alive/active — Thippiri Tirupathi @ Devji, the current No. 1; Muppalla Laxman Rao @ Ganpathi; Misir Besra; and Malla Raji Reddy @ Sangram. Sources told TOI that Ganpathi and Sangram, both in their late Seventies, have not been active in the recent past.Since 2019, thanks to the upgraded incentives for surrenders by Maoists, as many as 5,880 Maoists, of which 40% (2,337) were in 2025 alone, have eschewed the path of violence and laid down arms. Another 7,409 Maoists have been arrested since 2019. In fact, between Jan 1 and 15 this year, 18 Naxals were arrested and 139 had surrendered.Currently, only 8 districts across three states are categorised as LWE-hit, down from 126 in 2018.The Centre, which has declared a March 31, 2026 deadline to uproot Naxalism from the country, informed the LS that it has released Rs 3,682 crore to LWE-hit states for operational expenditure and training needs of counter-Naxal security personnel, rehabilitation of surrendered LWE cadres and ex-gratia to families of forces and civilians killed in LWE violence. Another Rs 1,761 was sanctioned to LWE states for strengthening their special forces, intelligence units and police stations. Central agencies have been provided Rs 1,224 crore since 2014-15 for setting up security camps in Maoist-infested areas and provisioning helicopters for counter-LWE operations, said Rai.
