Overview

• The CPI (Maoist) Central Committee acknowledged that 357 of its fighters were killed over the past year, marking unprecedented insurgent losses
• The death of general secretary Nambala Kesava Rao (Basavaraju) on May 20 inflicted the most severe leadership setback in years
• A June 23 party document blamed flawed execution of secret guerrilla methods for the heavy casualties and urged strict adherence to clandestine war rules
• Remaining cadres have fragmented into small, mobile units using ‘breeze and flowing water’ tactics to evade detection and security cordons
• Government forces have deployed about 20,000 personnel in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra under a campaign aiming to eliminate Maoist insurgency by March 2026