Once an engineer and later India's most wanted naxal leader, Basavaraju alias Nambala Keshav reduced to dust

New Delhi, May 22

From engineering in National Institute of Technology of Warangal to turning into the most dreadful naxal leader in the country, Basavaraju from Andhra Pradesh ran a naxal movement for more than six decades in the forests of Chhattisgarh. Trained by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in jungle warfare, military tactics, and use of improvised explosive devices, he was the biggest Maoist thread weaving “comrades” together and looming threat to national security. 

In a 50-hour-long operation, the District Reserve Guard of Chhattisgarh Police and Central Reserve Police Force have neutralized the most wanted top naxal leader Basavaraju  who was the head of major naxal movement in Chhattisgarh. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah applauded the security forces in Chhattsigarh and praised them for killing the top commander Basavaraju 

Basavaraju  also known as Nambala Keshav Rao (70) was killed in Abujhmad a dense forest in Bastar, the infamous naxal dominated area of Chhattsigarh. A gun fight ensued with the naxals where 26 Maoists were killed. The security forces got their biggest success in recent encounters with Bassavraju's killing. 

Nambala Keshav Rao, the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), has been part of the Naxalite movement since the late 1970s. Basavaraju figured in the National Investigation Agency’s most wanted list with a reward of around Rs. 1.5 crore and was wanted in connection with several deadly attacks on security forces across multiple states.

Basavaraju  has many aliases Krishna, Vinay, Ganganna, Prakash, BR, Umesh, Raju, Vijay, Keshav, and Narasimha Reddy, always known to carry AK 47 with him round the clock. 

Keshava Rao hailed from Jiyyannapeta village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. He began his early education in his native village and completed his high school in Talagam (his grandfather’s village in Tekkali revenue block) and pursued Intermediate at Tekkali Junior College

He was in his second year of undergraduate studies when he got into the B Tech programme at Regional Engineering College, Warangal (currently known as National Institute of Technology - NIT Warangal). this is when he became associated with Radical Students Union, the students’ wing of the then CPI (Marxist Leninist) People’s War, a major Naxalite outfit founded by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah.

It was only in 1984 that he got full-time into the CPI (M-L) People’s War, dropping out of his M.Tech course. He stayed underground for the next four decades. Later, with the merger of CPI (ML) PW and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) to form CPI (Maoist), Basavaraju was appointed secretary of the Central Military Commission. He held the position for a decade taking over as general secretary in 2018.

In 2018, he replaced Ganapathy (Muppala Lakshman Rao as the head of the Maoist Central Committee. His elevation marked a more aggressive phase for the group, with Rao believed to be behind several high-profile attacks, including the killing of TDP MLA K Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Sivari Soma in Andhra Pradesh the same year.

Keshava Rao was booked in several cases, including the 2003 claymore mine attack on chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri in Tirupati. He also masterminded the Chintalnar massacre in April 2010, where Maoists ambushed CRPF personnel returning from patrol and killed 74 CRPF soldiers.

Another major incident planned by Basavaraju was the 2013 attack on Mahendra Karma, the founder of Salwa Judum (a state-sponsored anti-Maoist militia). In this ambush, Karma and 27 others were killed.

He is also believed to be the brain behind the attack on Greyhounds police in October 2008 at Balimela on Andhra-Odisha border, killing 37 police personnel.

Interestingly, he was once arrested by Andhra Pradesh police in last 1980s when he had disguised himself as Ayyappa Deeksha devotee however managed to escape police custody. 

The killing Basavaraju alias Keshav Rao has been the biggest success against naxal free India reiterating the goal of HM Amit Shah to make India naxal free by March 2026.