Speculations rife on Narmada-Kiran’s replacements to lead Naxals in Gadchiroli

Nagpur: The arrests of senior Maoist cadres, Narmada and her husband Kiran, who held the reigns of the Maoist movement in the southern part of Gadchiroli which is also part of the dandakaranya, had been a major setback to the reds in their stronghold from which they are yet to recover. With the movement losing ground, speculation is rife in the district regarding the successors of these two seniormost cadres.
Police had claimed Narmada and her husband Kiran were arrested from Sironcha in June this year for their alleged involvement in the Jambhulkheda blast in Gadchiroli in which 15 Quick response team (QRT) jawans and one civilian driver were killed on May 1.
It’s learnt that a void was created in the reds’ movement in the tribal district following the arrests of the senior cadres. The movement in the last couple of years was already facing a crisis with surrenders and setbacks like in encounters at Kasnasoor and Nainer where 40 Maoists were killed in April last year.
Sources said the arrest of Narmada, followed by encounters of divisional committee members (DVCs) Ramko, Sainath, Sreenu and Nandu in Kasnasur and Nainer had left the movement in tatters until the reds made a comeback through arson in Dadapur where 27 vehicles were set on fire and another blast near Jambhulkheda which had wiped out the QRT squad.
Sources in the district stated that names of senior cadres like Tarakka alias Vimla Sidam and Giridhar alias Nangshu Tumreti are doing the rounds as the ones who had been handed over the baton to lead the rebel movement in the district in the place of Narmada and her husband Kiran.
Tarakka is the wife of Maoists’ Politburo member Mallajhula Venugopal alias Bhupathi who operates from Abhujmadh, on the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border. She, too, is a DVC of the Madh division. Tarakka commanded company number nine. There is a rumour of Tarakka having ascended to the position of Central Committee (CC) member.
A senior police officer denied the possibility of Tarakka being given charge of Narmada as she had been already ailing. She was injured too. It’s learnt that Tarakka was undergoing treatment at a hospital in the district.
Sources said the name of Girdhar, too, surfaced as the one who had been assigned the role to lead the movement in the district. Girdhar, a resident of Gadchiroli, would be one of those rare local cadres who shall then in that case be at the helm of the movement in the district where allegations of Andhra Pradesh or Telangana natives preferred as leaders can be put to rest. A Dandakaranya special zonal committee (DKSZC) member, Girdhar is also the commander of Maoist’s Company 4 which operated in the north and at the borders of Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat and Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.