A factional feud has broken out within the CPI (Maoist), giving fresh indications of a split. The top leaders of the merged People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which came together to form the CPI (Maoist), are now trying to claim their own areas of influence, according to latest intelligence reports shared with the Union home ministry.
The fight between the factions is for gaining control over prime extortion areas, which include north Chhattis-garh and parts of Bihar and Jharkhand.
The reports claim that CPI (Maoist) “general secretary” Muppala Lakshmana Rao, alias Ganapathi, originally from the PWG, wants to wrest control over the money-spinning area by ousting Dev Kumar Singh, alias Arvind, the present chief of the north Chattisgarh-Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee. Arvind was originally an MCC leader.
While Ganapathi wants to put a PWG leader in charge of the “prized zone” by replacing Arvind on the pretext that he not “performed well”, the latter has rejected the move.
Reports suggest that Maoists extort `2,000 crores across the country annually, a large portion of which comes from the three states.