41 Maoists surrender to Telangana police
Hyderabad (PTI): In a major setback to the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation, 41 underground cadres, including six senior functionaries at the Company Platoon Committee and Divisional Committee levels, surrendered to Telangana police, officials said.
The cadres formally renounced violence and joined the mainstream of society, Telangana Director General of Police B Shivadhar Reddy said in a press release on Friday.
The surrendered ultras handed over 24 firearms, including one INSAS LMG, three AK-47 rifles, and five SLR rifles, along with 733 live rounds of ammunition of various calibres, to the police.
"The surrender represents a significant erosion of organisational strength, morale, and leadership credibility of the CPI (Maoist)," the release said.
Police said the cadres decided to surrender as the CPI (Maoist) leadership had been arbitrarily deploying members to unfamiliar and distant areas without their consent, often to regions where they lacked basic geographical knowledge and local support.
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The total eligible reward of Rs 1.46 crore will be disbursed to the surrendered cadres under the state and central relief and rehabilitation policy after completion of documentation and opening of bank accounts, the release added.
In 2025 alone, 509 underground CPI (Maoist) cadres—including two Central Committee members, 11 State Committee members, and three Divisional Committee secretaries—have surrendered to Telangana police, underscoring the steady decline of the organisation, it said.
Reddy said the CPI (Maoist) leadership has instructed its cadres to move out of Chhattisgarh and disperse to other areas until March 2026, the deadline set by the Centre for eliminating the menace.
The leadership has told cadres that security operations will be scaled down after this date, allowing them to resume underground activities.
However, the police described this assurance as misleading and a false promise.
The DGP said arbitrary deployments to unfamiliar and distant areas had caused serious mobility constraints and acute logistical difficulties, including shortages of essential day-to-day necessities.
Such conditions created growing frustration and hardship among the cadres, compelling many to disengage from the CPI (Maoist) organisation and return to the mainstream of society, he added.
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Count of voters in Gujarat drops by 73.73 lakh to 4.34 crore post-SIR
Ahmedabad (PTI): The names of nearly 74 lakh voters have been dropped from Gujarat's draft electoral rolls after the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, pegging the total count of electors at 4.34 crore as against the 5.08 crore earlier, an official said on Friday.
The draft electoral rolls were published here by the Election Commission on Friday.
A total of 73.73 lakh voters were omitted from the electoral rolls after the exercise initiated by the EC to clean the rolls, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hareet Shukla said.
"Before the publication of the draft electoral rolls, a total of 5,08,43,436 voters were registered in the state. After the publication of these rolls, the number of voters is now 4,34,70,109," he said.
"During the SIR campaign, the names of a total of 73,73,327 voters have been removed from the draft electoral roll," Shukla said.
The names of voters in following categories were deleted in the draft electoral rolls -- deceased voters (18,07,278), absent voters (9,69,662), voters who have permanently migrated (40,25,553), voters registered in two places (3,81,470) and others (1,89,364), a release from CEO office said.
The SIR exercise began in Gujarat on November 4 and ended on December 14.
After the publication of draft rolls, objections and claims regarding them can be submitted to authorities till January 18, the EC earlier said.
