Raipur: In 2025, Chhattisgarh saw the most Maoist surrenders ever, with more than 1,000 cadres giving up their weapons so far. This rise comes as security forces step up their attempts to get rid of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) before the Central government’s ambitious goal of March 31, 2026.
The authorities say that 1,040 Maoist cadres have given up since the beginning of 2025, which is a lot more than the 881 who did so in all of 2024. This is a huge jump in the last two years, especially when you look at the numbers from the preceding few years: 344 in 2020, 544 in 2021, 417 in 2022, and 414 in 2023.
Since the Centre wants to terminate LWE by the end of the year, security personnel are expecting a record number of surrenders by the end of the year.
Surrenders are caused by ongoing pressure and disagreements among leaders.
Anonymous officials in the central armed police forces said that the long-term joint offensive by central and state forces has been the main cause. They expect a lot more mid- to senior-level cadres to give up this week, and intermediaries have already gotten in touch with the forces. This is likely to happen before Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes to the state on November 1 to celebrate the founding day.
An official who knew a lot about what was going on said that the success was due to a three-part plan:
The government’s new policy on giving up.
A huge and ongoing crackdown by security troops.
More and more disagreements within the Maoist leadership are harming both senior and junior members.
The official said, “Talks are still going on, and any Maoist cadre who wants to give up and join the mainstream is welcome.”
The security crackdown is clearly making the command structure of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) weaker. According to police and security forces, the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee (CC) now only has 10 members. There were at least 45 members of the Central Committee three years ago. Most of them have since died in gunfights, surrendered, or from natural causes.
The most recent sign of the success of the anti-LWE push came on October 8, when 16 Maoist leaders, who were all offering a reward of ₹48 lakh, gave themselves up to the Narayanpur district police.
Expected High-Level Police Conference
Chhattisgarh will host the annual conference of director generals of police/inspector generals of police (DGPs/IGPs) in Naya Raipur, probably between November 28 and 30. This is another sign of the focus on LWE removal. Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, is due to open the 60th conference. On the second day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to speak to the police chiefs. The big event shows how serious the Center is about reaching its LWE eradication goals.