Senior most Maoist leader Katakam Sudarshan dead

Katakam Sudarshan died on May 31 while being underground in Dandakaranya of Chhattisgarh, the Maoist party announced in press release on Sunday.

Hyderabad: A top Maoist leader, who had escaped numerous exchanges of fire and branded a most wanted one in India. Katakam Sudarshan died on May 31 while being underground in Dandakaranya of Chhattisgarh, the Maoist party announced in Press Release on Sunday.

Katakam Sudarshan who went by the name of Anand and Dula died of a heart stroke at 12:20 PM and was underground for about 48 years. The party press release dated June 3 said, Sudharshan was the member of CPI (Maoist) Central Committee and Politburo member. Suhardshan was an undisputed Maoist ideologue and an expert in the fieldcraft, hailed from Bellampalli of Adilabad district and had done his Diploma in Mining before getting attracted to revolutionary ideology from 1978 onwards.

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He got attracted to the CPI-ML People’s War ideology and participated in “Back to villages” campaign launched by the party in 1978. He had extensively worked in coalfield areas and gave a fillip to the revolutionary moment after the infamous Indravelli firing on April 20, 1981. He was then Adilabad District Committee Secretary and later in 1985 moved to Dandakaranya region as part of the ‘Guerrilla Zone Perspective”. Sudharshan led the Sironcha squad in Gadchiroli, which was one of the seven squads sent to Dandakaranya, extending from Gadchiroli (in Maharashtra) to Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

Subsequently, he played a crucial role in forming the ‘Retreat Zone’ extending from Adilabad, Gadchiroli, Bastar to East Godavari and was the “Forest Liaison Committee’ member of the then CPI-ML People’s War.

Later in 1995, he was appointed as the Secretary of newly formed North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC). Subsequently he was elected to the Central Committee in the All India Special Conference in 1995. Also 2001 and 2007 Congress, he was elected as member of the Central Committee and Politburo.

Sudarshan played a crucial role in building the revolutionary moment in India and had escaped from dozens of exchanges of fire with the security forced in his nearly five decade long underground life.