SPECIAL REPORT: Power struggle intensifies within CPI (Maoist)

* With the advancing age of General Secretary of the banned ultra-Left outfit Ganapathy, discussions on line of succession are intense and allegations of ‘Telugu domination’ are growing

By Kartik Lokhande
UNDATED, Jan 20: Power is poison. It vitiates organisation, it is said. The banned ultra-Left outfit Communist Party of India (Maoist) is experiencing this nowadays. With the advancing age of its supreme commander Muppalla Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathy, a struggle for his position has intensified within the Maoist organisation.
The power struggle that began some time ago has intensified and serious rifts are emerging in the top leadership of the Maoist organisation. CPI (Maoist) came into being in September 2004 after merger of two biggest ultra-Left groups namely People’s War (PW) active in southern and Central India, and Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) active in northern parts of the country. Though the merger had taken place on ‘theoretical’ lines, some differences remained among cadres from both the groups that formed the new outfit. These differences have emerged once again, this time more intensely with the cadres belonging to erstwhile MCCI alleging ‘Telugu domination’.
“Ganapathy is the uniting force. He has managed to keep the rifts from assuming serious proportions in the past. However, with his advancing age have come restrictions on his movement. And, taking advantage of this, some are demanding to make the line of succession clear,” said a source. Several persons from erstwhile PW and MCCI are interested in assuming the position of power, especially after surrender/arrest/encounter of some of the strongest contenders in the recent past.
According to another source, as Ganapathy belonged to erstwhile PW, now the MCCI cadres are demanding leader of the erstwhile MCCI Prashant Bose to take over as Secretary of CPI (Maoist). However, others said, Bose is older than Ganapathy and hence junior cadres are drumming for relatively younger leader being given the top responsibility. Prashant Bose alias Kishanda alias Manishji founded MCCI and was its General Secretary till merger with PW in 2004. If one considers the Politburo Members, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavraj alias Ganganna is another leader, who some want to become CPI (Maoist) General Secretary as he heads Central Military Commission as also the Intelligence Wing of the banned outfit.
Previously, Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji had emerged very fast within party organisation especially after leading the Maoists in Lalgarh. Later, he was killed in an encounter with the cops. Then also, there were allegations that cops were given information about him by ‘someone in the party’ in an effort to eliminate him.
At present, allegations of ‘Telugu domination’ are growing within the Maoist organisation. A few years ago, there were 40 members on Central Committee and 14 in Politburo of CPI (Maoist). However, after a series of encounters and arrests, the number has come down to 17 and six respectively. Of 17 members on Central Committee, 11 are ‘Telugu’ -- that is, from Andhra Pradesh and associated with the erstwhile PW. These include Muppalla Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathy, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraj alias Ganganna, Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna alias Saket, Kishenji’s brother Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Bhupathi alias Abhay, Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy alias Kosa, ‘Modem’ Balakrishna alias Manoj, Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand, Tippiri Tirupathi alias Sanjeevi alias Devuji, Malla Raji Reddy, Chittoor Ramchandra Reddy alias Chalapathi, and Katta Ramchandra Reddy alias Vijay. The six-member Politburo consists of Ganapathy, Basavraj, Bhupathi, Akkiraju Haragopal -- all from Andhra Pradesh, and Prashant Bose and Misir Besra alias Sunirmal alias Bhaskar from MCCI. Thus, four of total six Politburo members are ‘Telugu’.
This has led to a situation in which cadres of erstwhile MCCI and other organisations are tending to ‘disobey’ the commands of ‘Telugu’ leadership. Vice versa also, it is happening in some pockets. Many members of erstwhile MCCI are ‘displeased’ with the treatment being given by ‘Telugu’ leadership. The rifts at Central level have percolated down to State Committee levels also. The ‘restless’ non-Telugu juniors are gunning for the leadership position in different States/regions, but the Telugu leadership is not handing over the responsibility to them. Clamour is growing for elevation of junior members to important committees, as many senior leaders have been arrested or killed by cops.

Appeared as all-edition lead story of The Hitavada front page on February 2, 2014

Recently, the Maoist top leadership had dropped enough hints that it had taken serious note of the rifts. Referring to these rifts, it had said that ‘non-proletarian’ and ‘casteist’ influences needed to be rectified. In the 4th Central Committee meeting held recently, it was stated, “It is necessary to fight determinedly the ideological and political wrong trends and also correct the mistakes continuing in practice and strengthen unity of the party and improve our practice.”
The reference to ‘unity of the party’ was eloquent enough on the current situation in Maoist organisation, said a police source. However, he said, despite differences the CPI (Maoist) may not see a split. “The Maoist leadership is well aware of the fact that once there is a split, the security forces will finish the Left Wing Extremism. Hence, some of its leaders have started emphasising on rectification campaigns,” he added.

What did erstwhile top leaders of PW and MCCI say on differences at the time of announcing merger of both outfits into CPI (Maoist)?

Ganapathy: Within the party there will be differences, and as a reflection of the class struggle in society, there would be the possibility for the emergence of non-proletarian trends. There will be a fight between right and wrong within the party. All internal differences will be solved on the basis of MLM and correct methods. The Marxist method of self-criticism and criticism, conducting inner-party struggles and rectification campaigns, to weed out non-proletarian trends, guarantee a strong party unity, which avoids any split. History proves that in the past too, we basically solved all major internal problems in this manner.

Kishan (Prashant Bose): Whether this unity, based on ideology could be said to be a true unity? My answer is: it could be said yes, as also no. Because true unity based on ideology should not be seen in an absolute sense. It should be seen in a relative sense. In this case, the principal aspect is unity, and the non-principal aspect is struggle.