Who Is Basavaraju? Top Maoist Leader With ₹1 Crore Bounty

Security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region reportedly killed Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), in a fierce gun battle on Wednesday. Police officials cited by the Hindustan Times confirmed that Basavaraju could be among the 26 Maoists who lost their lives during the encounter in the dense Abujhmad forest.

Who is Nambala Keshav Rao?
Hailing from Jiyannapeta village in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, Basavaraju is an engineering graduate with a BTech degree from the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. Over the decades, he operated under several aliases including Ganganna, Prakash, Krishna, Vijay, Darapu Narasimha Reddy, and Narasimha, making it difficult for law enforcement to track him.

Authorities do not possess a recent photograph of Basavaraju, and investigations have revealed he owns no property in his native village, which he left in the late 1970s. His primary zones of operation spanned across Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and parts of Maharashtra.

Nambala Keshav Rao Had a Longstanding Role in Maoist Movement
Basavaraju has been a key figure in the Maoist insurgency since the 1970s. He played an instrumental role in establishing the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist People’s War (CPIMLPW) in Andhra Pradesh in 1980. In 1987, alongside senior Maoist leaders such as Ganapathy and the late Kishanji, he is believed to have undergone training in ambush tactics and explosives provided by former Tamil rebels in the Abujhmad forests of Bastar.

His influence within the Maoist ranks grew steadily. In 1992, Basavaraju was elected to the central committee of CPIMLPW. Following the 2004 merger of CPIMLPW and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) to form the CPI (Maoist), he was appointed secretary of the Central Military Commission, overseeing the armed wing of the party.