Kishenji was only a figurehead,successor ‘in place’

There is evidence to indicate,security officials said,that there is a successor in place: a senior but “unfamiliar” Politburo member of the CPI-Maoists. Sources said this successor had scripted operations in Orissa and Chhattisgarh and has been put in charge of West Bengal as well.

But what is clear is that Kishenji’s brother Venugopal,a member of the CPI-Maoist central committee,is not going to replace him although he is familiar with the Junglemahal terrain and held temporary charge in West Bengal.

Kishenji’s death comes at a time when the Maoists are redefining their relationship with the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal. In the run-up to the Assembly elections last year,Kishenji was seen as growing “too close” to the Trinamool in the fight against the CPM government. Sources said this also could have led to his isolation within the ranks once the Trinamool government took charge and began hardening its position.

According to internal documents of the CPI-Maoists accessed by The Indian Express,during their last

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Kishenji was only

a figurehead,successor ‘in place’

congress in the Saranda forest in February this year,Kishenji was criticised by the central committee. Records of meetings show that there was a discussion on why the “Lalgarh movement,” led by Kishenji,could not spread beyond Junglemahal. Also discussed was how during 2009-2010,Kishenji became “extremely media friendly”. He even telephoned bureaucrats and ministers of the Left Front government.

This familiarity reached such a stage that it was ridiculed — there were at least three occasions when the police said they had tracked Kishenji using mobile towers,that they were just yards away from him,only to miss the target.

Evidence of cracks in the rank and file following Kishenji’s marginalisation came in the form of recent photos and video clips of Kishenji moving freely in the villages in Junglemahal. It was this lowering of the guard that helped security forces narrow down their search. Sources said that during the encounter that led to his death,Kishenji did not have his usual security platoon — over two dozen crack cadres of the CPI-Maoist’s military wing.

There is also the view that insiders may have set up Kishenji.

Officials in Andhra Pradesh’s anti-Maoist agencies said Kishenji became a marked man the day they killed a Trinamool Congress leader,Rabindranath Mishra,at Jhargram on August 26.

“When the newly elected West Bengal government started talking tough on Maoists,they thought of sending a strong message by killing a Trinamool leader. How Mallojula,who has so much experience in the Naxalite movement,could have made this serious miscalculation is a mystery because Mishra’s killing only provoked the Bengal government,” said an official.

“In the past few weeks,Maoists also killed several Trinamool workers as warnings,but this backfired. These decisions may have been taken against Kishenji’s wishes or he may not have been aware. The Bengal government had warned it would not tolerate the killings. Within three months of Mishra’s killing,Mallojula,with a weak left leg,was killed. Of course,it was a tip-off from within,he was set up,’’ said the official.

In fact,the team which shot him dead had specific information of his location and the number of persons guarding him; they even cross-checked if one of the female guards was his wife,officials in Andhra Pradesh said.

The news of Kishenji’s death was followed by a pall of gloom in Telangana districts. People gathered at public places and sang folk songs in his honour.