Pothula Padmavathi, alias Sujatha, a central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered before the Telangana Police on Saturday after being underground for more than four decades, The Indian Express reported.

The 62-year-old, who is the widow of Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, was in charge of the organisation’s South Sub-Zonal Bureau of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee.

Kishenji was killed in a gunfight with security forces in 2011.

Sujatha was wanted in connection with more than 70 cases filed in several districts of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region and carried a reward of Rs 40 lakh on her head, The Hindu reported.

P Sundarraj, inspector general of police for the Bastar range, told The Indian Express that Sujatha’s surrender came amid a power tussle within the banned outfit after its general secretary at the time, Basavaraju, was killed in May.

Basavaraju, who was described by the Union government as the “backbone of the Naxal movement”, was among 27 suspected Maoists killed in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur on May 21.

“After the death of [Basavaraju] a bitter power struggle rages among cadres – each desperate to grab the position and exploit the extortion money looted from innocent villagers,” the newspaper quoted Sundarraj as saying. “The same story is unfolding in Bastar.”

The police officer added that Sujata and another Maoist leader Ramachandra Reddy had been “locked in a tug-of-war for the secretary’s position” since the death of Ramanna, a former secretary of the outfit’s Dandakarnya Special Zonal Committee, in 2019.

“Disillusioned by these ugly power struggles and the outfit’s steady decline, senior leader Sujatha ultimately chose to walk away, surrendering and embracing the mainstream,” The Indian Express quoted Sundarraj as saying. “Her departure marks a major psychological blow to the Maoist ranks.”

He claimed that Sujatha’s surrender, along with the killing of another leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Modem Balakrishna alias Manoj, in Gariyaband by security forces on Thursday, had dealt a severe blow to the leadership structure of the banned outfit.

Sundarraj urged other members of the banned outfit to also surrender, adding that its cadres do not have any other option “except to shun violence and join the mainstream”.

Sujatha cited her ill-health as the reason for her decision to surrender, The Indian Express reported.

“In May this year, I communicated my request to the central committee [of the Communist Party of India-Maoist], stating my wish to leave the organisation on health grounds and rejoin the mainstream with government support,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.

Sujatha will receive Rs 25 lakh, which was the bounty she carried in Telangana, along with other rehabilitation measures in line with the state government’s policy for Maoist leaders who surrender, The Hindu reported.

The Union government has repeatedly vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

Sujatha’s background

Sujatha, who hails from the Penchikalapadu village in Telangana’s Jogulamba Gadwal district, joined the Maoist movement in 1982, The Indian Express reported. Several of her family members were also involved in the Maoist movement.

In 1987, Sujatha and Kishenji were assigned to the banned outfit’s Dandakaranya Forest Committee in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. The couple have one daughter.

In 2008, Kishenji was transferred to West Bengal, according to the newspaper. In November 2011, he was killed in a gunfight with security personnel in West Midnapore district.

Sujatha was sent to Bastar in 1997 and went on to become the secretary of the South Sub-Zonal Bureau of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee in 2022. She was elevated as a central committee member a year later.

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