Raipur/Sukma, Nov 24 The killing of the most-wanted Maoist commander Madvi Hidma on the Andhra-Chhattisgarh border has triggered a wave of desertions inside the outlawed CPI (Maoist), with fifteen active cadres carrying a combined bounty of nearly fifty lakh rupees laying down arms in Sukma district on Monday.
The group, comprising ten men and five women, formally surrendered before Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran Chavan at the district police headquarters.
Among them were four hardcore members of the dreaded People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion No. 1 – PPCM Madvi Sanna, Sodi Hidme, Suryam alias Ravva Soma and Meena alias Madvi Bheeme – each carrying a reward of eight lakh rupees on their heads.
Area Committee Member Sunita alias Kuhram Hungi and Madkam Pandu carried five lakh rupees each, while militia member Kunjam Singa was wanted for three lakh rupees.
The remaining eight belonged to village-level units such as KAMS, DAKMS, Revolutionary People’s Committee and the Maoist economic wing.
Speaking to reporters, SP Chavan said the surrenders were a direct fallout of the leadership vacuum and deepening fear created by Hidma’s elimination earlier this month.
Continuous expansion of security camps deep inside erstwhile Maoist strongholds, coupled with the Chhattisgarh government’s attractive Naxal Surrender Rehabilitation Policy-2025, has shattered cadre morale.
Most of those who surrendered told officers they were tired of internal oppression, constant directives from absconding higher-ups, and the organisation’s atrocities against the very tribal villagers it claims to represent.
Announcing an immediate incentive of fifty thousand rupees to each surrenderer, SP Kiran Chavan appealed to the remaining Maoists to shun violence.
“No one can build a future by walking the path of the gun. Those who return will be rehabilitated with dignity and linked to all government welfare schemes so they can live respectfully in society,” he said.
Sources in the police headquarters confirmed that several more cadres from south Bastar are in touch with authorities and are likely to surrender in the coming days.
With Monday’s development, the number of Maoists who have abandoned the movement in Chhattisgarh this year has crossed 650, signalling a rapid collapse of the four-decade-old insurgency ahead of the Centre’s March 2026 deadline to end Maoism.
--IANS
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