Two top Maoist leaders from RSU background gives up armed struggle after

Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram, CPI (Maoist) central committee member after surrendering before Telangana Director General of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy in Hyderabad on Tuesday (February 24, 2026).
| Photo Credit:
NAGARA GOPAL

The top Maoist leaders — 62-year-old Tippiri Thirupathi alias Devuji and 76-year-old Malla Raji Reddy alias Sangram — who joined the mainstream giving up the decades-long armed struggle, had a meteoric rise in the Naxalite ranks from student leaders of the Radical Students Union (RSU) to the top echelons of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation.

Both hail from the erstwhile undivided Karimnagar district — considered as cradle of naxal movement — and rose in the ranks of the outlawed outfit to become the members of the Central Committee, the apex decision-making body of the proscribed organisation.

Mr. Raji Reddy, a native of Shastrulapally in Peddapalli district, joined the RSU in 1974 after completing intermediate. He went underground in late 1980s after working as an organiser in the coal belt of Godavarikhani for a few years.

Mr. Tirupathi actively spearheaded the RSU activities as the district president of the radical student wing during his college days. He got attracted towards the naxal movement during the CPI (ML) People’s War Group (PWG)’s Jagtial Jaithra Yatra rally and subsequently joined the banned organisation in 1982.

He moved to the Dandakaranya forest region to work with Mr. Raji Reddy alias Sangram as per the suggestion of the top naxal leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi, a native of Beerpur in Jagtial district. Ganapathi, the former general secretary of the CPI (Maoist), continues to remains elusive.  

Mr. Tirupathi headed the crucial Central Military Commission and Mr. Raji Reddy the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee until their surrender. Both of them were known for their expertise in guerilla warfare among the naxal ranks in the Dandakaranya region spanning parts of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra from where they operated for the past few decades.

Celebratory mood pervaded Raji Reddy’s native village, Shastrulapalli and Tirupathi’s hometown Korutla, following their return to mainstream from prolonged underground life.