Top woman Maoist leader surrenders before Telangana DGP

HYDERABAD: A top leader of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) surrendered before the Telangana police on Saurday.

Aluri Usha Rani, a divisional committee member of the north sub-zonal bureau of the Dandakaranya special zonal committee of CPI (Maoist), laid down arms before Director General of Police, M. Mahender Reddy.

Usha Rani alias Vijayakka alias Pochakka is a native of Tenali in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and was brought up at Gudivada in Krishna district. She surrendered on health grounds.

According to the police, she was involved in several violent incidents both in Telangana and Chhattisgarh. She participated in a total of 14 offences during her underground life in both the states. These include five attacks on security forces, three exchanges of fire with the police, three blasting of buildings, one abduction and two assault cases.

The DGP appealed to the Maoist cadres to join the mainstream and take part in the advancement of the nation through constructive participation and benefit from the rehabilitation process of Telangana state, which includes immediate relief with suitable amount and other support measures.

The DGP said Usha Rani will be provided total rehabilitation by the state as per the policy. He also gave her Rs 50,000 cash towards meeting her immediate expenses.

Usha Rani disclosed that many of the senior cadres of CPI (Maoist) over 60 years of age are suffering from severe health problems and are not getting due attention or treatment on account of lacking access to medical facilities.

According to her, many members of the central committee, including Muppala Laxman Rao alias Ganapathi, ex-general secretary of CPI (Maoist), are suffering from ill health due to old age.

Laxman Rao, unable to move across the struggle areas in the country, was relieved from the responsibilities of general secretary. Now his health condition is highly precarious.

She told the police that the organisation suffered setbacks, both militarily and organisationally, due to arrests, deaths and surrender of important as well as senior cadres.

Post 2014, the top leadership of CPI (Maoist) had gone into a self-preservation mode, wherein the functioning underwent drastic transformation, giving more priority to secrecy. As a result, there is visible gap between the top leadership and the lower cadre, leading to denial of information on the developments taking place in the organisation.

Usha Rani also disclosed that most of the recruitment today happens from the tribal belts of Dandakaranya, which is also reducing day by day, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Usha Rani hailed from a revolutionary family and had joined the organisation with a lot of expectations to bring change in the society. She actively participated in armed struggles for more than three decades and failed to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the police said.

Her father Bhujanga Rao, a government teacher, took voluntary retirement in 1985 and joined in CPI(ML) People's War Group. He went underground and worked as special zonal committee member for about 10 years. He used to translate Prabhath magazine of CPI(ML) People's War Group from Telugu to Hindi.

He spent underground life in different towns of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and served as den keeper for providing shelter to the senior underground cadres.

Usha Rani's mother Lalitha Parameshwari also worked for the CPI(ML) People's War Group along with Bhujanga Rao.

In 1984, while pursuing her B.Sc from the ANR Degree College, Gudivada, Usha Rani joined RSU under the leadership of Kalleguri Prasad, a central organiser. She joined the CPI(ML) People's War Group in 1991.

In 1998, her husband Mukka Venkateshwar Gupta alias Kiran, the Nalgonda district secretary and south Telangana regional committee member, died in an exchange of fire while retreating after on attack on the Yadagirgutta police station.