Bengal's nightmare Maoist Kishenji's profile
Born as Mallojula Koteswara Rao, India's most wanted Maoist, Kishenji, is killed by security forces in West Bengal's West Midnapore.
"In eight states, there have been day-and-night search operations to trace me. In 1,600 villages in Bengal, people are on night guard to ensure the police can't find me. The people of Bengal love me. The police have to kill them before they can get me."
That was the brazen statement of Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, India's most wanted Maoist and number two in the CPI (Maoist) hierarchy. But on Thursday evening, he could not escape from the dragnet of security forces and met his inevitable end.
A born leader, a shrewd strategist and a ruthless killer, Kishenji was born in 1956 in a Brahmin family in the Peddapalli village of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh.
After completing his graduation in mathematics in 1973, Kishenji moved to Hyderabad to pursue a law degree from Osmania University. It was there that the seeds of politics were sown in him. He was associated with the Telangana Sangarsh Samiti that was fighting for a Telangana state.
During the Emergency, Kishenji went underground and got in touch with Maoist ideologue P. Varavara Rao, whose writings inspired him to join the revolutionary movement.
In 1977, Kishenji led the historic peasant movement against feudalism at Jagitial and Siricilla in Karimnaga. This was the basis for the formation of the People's War Group (PWG) in Andhra by Naxalite leader Kondapalli Seetharamaiah in the early '80s.
"The role of Koteshwara Rao in founding the PWG and expanding it to every nook and corner of Andhra Pradesh was commendable. He was an inspiration to every progressive student in those days. His daring nature was evident from the way he helped Seetharamaiah escape from the Osmania General Hospital in 1983," Vara Vara Rao recalled.
After that operation, Kishenji disappeared into the forests, from where he led the Maoist operations for three decades.
He ruled the Dandakaranya forests in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh for 20 years before shifting base to West Bengal and Jharkhand. Kishenji had played an instrumental role in the merger of the Maoist Communist Centre with the PWG to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004. Under his leadership, the Maoist party spread up to Assam and Manipur.
He waged a relentless and bloody war against the State. He had claimed to have killed more than 100 people. He was involved in several encounters with security forces but gave them the slip every time.
He lent his force behind the people's agitations in Singur, Lalgarh and Junglemahal and became a nightmare for the West Bengal government during the Left Front rule.
Apart from his revolutionary activities, Kishenji also had a penchant for writing. He used to contribute poems and articles to Telugu dailies regularly.
He was also tech-savvy and was said to be operating a satellite phone. In fact, he even gave his mobile phone number to the police, daring them to track him down.