...Keshava Rao’s life voyage showcased or symbolised how a Marxist revolutionary remains undeterred amidst the harshest perils or most tortuous roots. It illustrated how revolutionary upheaval breeds a revolutionary and the spiritual transformation undergone within a Revolutionary. Exploring and experimenting was a habitual feature of his life, equipping him to resurrect revolutionary upsurge from the deepest depths of despair. Kesava Rao qualities constituted a concoction of tenacity, courage and creativity, which plummeted to skyrocketing heights. Till the very last he championed collective spirit and combated individualism.
With untold mastery he preserved the fulcrum or base of the revolutionary movements and structures. Few Communist leaders played such a pivotal role into transpiring the Dandakaranya movements or as assiduously established seeds of revolutionary democracy. Each part of his life was similar to a fresh chapter in an epic., with the narration of his evolution and voyage from an embryonic stage to a great Maoist leader, a classic in itself.
Son of a school teacher, Keshava Rao hailed from Jiyyannapeta village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. Keshava Rao began his early education in his native village and completed his high school in Talagam (his grandfather’s village in Tekkali revenue block) and pursued Intermediate at Tekkali Junior College.
His revolutionary journey began its transition in his second year of undergraduate studies in REC (Regional Engineering College) during 1973–74 being one of the founder members of RSU. In Warangal. He defiantly organised combat to isolate the ABVP’s hooliganism and communal politics. He was instrumental in giving REC a reputation as the “Radical Engineering College.” With repression on revolutionaries escalating during the Emergency, he chose to go underground and never resurfaced.
He was a talented sports person in his college days, excelling in Kabaddi, Volleyball and cricket.
While living underground in Warangal, he worked as a hamali (porter) for a few months to enable him to organize the local labourers.
Military Contribution
Keshava Rao displayed mastery as a strategist in Maoist operations and was adept at orchestrating guerrilla warfare.
In 1980, when the party decided to send squads into the forests, he was deputed as the commander of the first squad to East Godavari district under the name “Ganganna.” Gradually, he became part and parcel of the Dandakaranya movement. He was first elected to the Forest Liaison Committee and later to the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee. For several years, he served as the secretary of the Dandakaranya committee under the name Ganganna. In 1986, while he was waiting for an appointment in Visakhapattanam, STF sleuth tried to arrest him but he escaped after retaliating physically and then firing at them. From then on, until the encounter in which he was martyred, he was never trapped by the police.
As head of the CMC, he orchestrated or was at the forefront of many of the Indian revolutionary movement’s most intensive and daring military accomplishments .. He played a pivotal part in forming higher-level military formations in 1995, planting the People’s Guerrilla Army in 2000, and the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in 2004. As commander of the PLGA, he personally trained squads across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Dandakaranya, and was a direct participant in military actions.
Some of the major attacks that took place under Basavaraju’s leadership include:
2018 Sukma IED attack: Maoists detonated an IED targeting a mine-protected vehicle carrying CRPF troops. Nine CRPF personnel were killed and six injured.
2019 Gadchiroli landmine blast: A landmine explosion targeted a police vehicle hours after Maoists torched vehicles at a road construction site in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. As many as 15 police personnel and a driver were killed.
2021 Sukma-Bijapur ambush: Security forces were ambushed during an anti-Maoist operation, leading to a prolonged firefight. As many as 22 security personnel were killed and 32 injured.
023 Dantewada IED blast: An IED explosion targeted a vehicle returning from an anti-Maoist operation. 10 DRG personnel and 1 civilian driver were killed.
2025 Bijapur IED attack: A powerful IED explosion targeted a vehicle returning from an anti-Maoist operation. Eight DRG personnel and a civilian driver were killed.
Role in re-organising and Leading Maoist Party
In Indian Communist revolutionary movement frequently ML parties in India have merged into a single group, and splintered again due to opportunistic political and leadership issues. Comrade B.R. played a significant role collectively in securing everlasting unity at the central level after the merger of People’s War and Party Unity in 1998 and later Peoples War and MCCI in 2004 and the CPI Maoist was formed. He played an instrumental part in critical political decisions like planting guerrilla bases in Dandakaranya and germinating people’s democratic organs of power.
Comrade B.R. became the party’s General Secretary at the age of 65 when the revolutionary movement. was undergoing a crisis. He undeterringly led the party during this tenure of crisis and relentlessly fought until his last breath.
Comrade B.R. served as the General Secretary of the party for seven years, from 2018 until his death. Prior to that, since the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the erstwhile People's War Party was formed in 2001, Comrade B.R. was the in-charge for it. When the CPI (Maoist) was formed in 2004, he contributed as a leader in both the CMC and the Politburo, playing a major role in leading the revolutionary movement.....
extraits from Harsh Takhor
