Hyderabad: Muppal Lakshman Rao alias, Ganapathy, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, India's biggest and the most dreaded left-wing armed organisation, was till now faceless.
The Maoist rebel, whose armed followers indulge in violence and sabotage across 16 states, is wanted by many state governments including his home state of Andhra Pradesh where a reward of Rs 1.2 million (Dh93,344.08) has been put on his head.
For the first time in three decades, security forces hunting down Ganapathy now has his latest picture after a video recording of him making a speech was recently uploaded on YouTube.
Prior to this, all the police had was Ganapathy's passport-size photo which was taken when he was in college.
Shadowy figure
Ganapathy, who was born in Beerpur village in Karimnagar district, is one of the very few surviving leaders of the Maoist organisation. He was around when the CPI ML (People's War) was launched in 1980.
He was instrumental in the revolt against its founder Kondapalli Seetaramaiah and took over as the secretary of the organisation — charting out a completely new and more extremist path.
Ganapathy remained a shadowy figure. His success in evading arrest demonstrates his remarkable ability to remain ahead of the forces of the state.
He does not leave any trace of his identity behind till now. Given the fact that he has as many as 10,000 to 15,000 fiercely loyal supporters, many of them armed, and hundreds of thousands of supporters across the country, Ganapathy is today considered as the most powerful underground or rebel leader in the country.
He dreams of bringing in a "New Democratic Revolution".
While most of the top Maoist leaders from Andhra Pradesh have been eliminated by the police, Ganapathy along with a handful of others, including M Koteshwara Rao, alias Kishenji, remains at large.
Ganapathy is believed to be hiding somewhere in the forested areas of Jharkhand, surrounded by several layers of security as well as rings of landmines and other protective measures.
Kishenji, who is believed to be holed up in the Lalgarh area in West Bengal, also hails from Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh.
He is among the most senior leaders of the CPI-Maoist and the head of its military commission.
Recently, he was trapped by the West Bengal police but managed to escape after the state police was ordered to withdraw in exchange of the life of Atindranath Dutta, a police officer who was abducted by rebels.
Kishenji is so audacious that he keeps in touch with the media over his mobile phone, frequently giving interviews and commenting on current developments. "I challenge the police to trace me", he once told this correspondent.
