Senior Politburo Member Mallojula Venugopal Rao Lays Down Weapons With 60 Maoist Cadre | Exclusive

Mallojula Venugopal Rao, Alias ​​Sonu.

Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Sonu, a senior leader of the CPI (Maoist) and part of the Politburo, laid down weapons along with 60 Maoist cadres in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Tuesday in a major blow for the cornered outfit.

Last week, there were reports that Sonu, a native of Telangana, had resigned from the party. In a letter, he had called upon cadres to “save themselves” and not make “meaningless sacrifices”, exposing the rift within Maoists over giving up arms and joining the mainstream.

In the letter, Sonu is said to have told his comrades that he could no longer continue the armed struggle under the present circumstances. Admitting that the path followed by the Maoists had been “completely wrong”, he apologised for his inability to prevent its decline. He also said repeated leadership mistakes had caused major setbacks to the Maoists.

According to the police, Sonu has received support from the North sub-Zonal and West sub-Zonal Bureau of CPI (Maoist), who have expressed an interest in joining the mainstream.

Police said Sonu had issued an oral and also written statement on August 15 claiming they were ready for a ceasefire. He issued another statement reportedly in September stating that it (laying down arms) was discussed in the central committee and politburo and decided accordingly even before Basavaraju was killed (by security forces in Chhattisgarh on May 21).

For the Indian security grid, the move is being seen as a result of sustained operations under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah and state governments across the country to weed out Naxalism by 2026.

For many years, Left Wing Extremism (LWE), widely referred to as Naxalism, posed a serious internal security threat to India. At its height in 2010, Naxal-related unrest was reported across several states, impacting more than 200 districts. In the years since, the Indian government has adopted a more assertive approach. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the country is steadily moving toward eliminating the Naxal threat entirely through a combination of strong security operations and targeted development efforts in affected regions.

Latest data reveals a dramatic decline in both geographical spread and intensity of violence. In August 2025, the Home Ministry informed Parliament that “the resolute implementation of the National Policy and Action Plan 2015 has resulted in consistent decline in violence and constriction of geographical spread. The LWE-related violence incidents and resultant deaths of civilians & Security Forces, have come down from high of 2010 by 81 per cent and 85 per cent respectively in 2024″.