The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
Social activist Gautam Navlakha, accused of having links to Maoists and Pakistan's spy agency ISI, on Friday withdrew from the Supreme Court his application seeking to be shifted to Delhi from Mumbai under house arrest.
In a blow to the Naxals, top Maoist leader Kanchan has been arrested along with two others from the outskirts of Kolkata. Kanchan, one of the top Maoist leaders after Kishenji, had planned and implemented the Lalgarh movement in November 2008. The Maoist Central committee member, who was wanted in several cases of sedition, was arrested by the Special Task force of the police on Friday. "Yes, we have arrested Kanchan from Kolkata," said a police official.
The families of policemen being held hostage by Maoists in Bhopalpatnam, near the Chhattisgarh- Andhra Pradesh border, have appealed for their release without delay. Maoists abducted the seven policemen last Sunday, including an assistant sub inspector, a special police officer and three constables. The bodies of three policemen were recovered a day later from a dense forest in Bijapur District of Bastar region. Four are still missing.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan of the specialised COBRA unit was killed and a Deputy Commandant injured in a fierce encounter with Maoists at Chiklam village in Jharkhand's Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division on Wednesday.
Four persons, including three policemen, were killed and six others injured when Maoists fired on a transit van ferrying prisoners and a police escort car to free their cadres in this town on Friday.
The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, the breakaway faction of Nepal's ruling Maoists, has issued a warning against screening of Hindi films and operation of vehicles bearing Indian number plates in 10 districts, saying that anybody defying its ban will face consequences.
Ten Maoists were killed in an encounter with a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist near a village of Chatra district, police said on Thursday.
Security forces on Tuesday battled with Maoists in a jungle near Basadera village in the Naxal-hit Ghatsila area of East Singhbhum district in Jharkhand
A group of armed Maoists went on a rampage in the tribal area of Visakhapatnam district destroying public properties late on Wednesday night.
At least 12 Maoists have been killed in the massive anti-Naxal operation launched jointly by security forces of Jharkhand and Orissa since Saturday in Saranda forest, a top police official said on Monday. Jharkhand Director General of Police Neyaz Ahmad said that ten to 12 Maoists have been killed since Saturday.Meanwhile, the Maoists blew up a hostel and panchayat bhawan at Anandpur and triggered three landmine blasts in the Tirilposhi jungle today morning.
At least four passengers were killed and another eight were injured when the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express derailed at Golden Ganj station near Chhapra on early Wednesday morning in a suspected sabotage by Maoists.
The state Cabinet, which met in Hyderabad on Wednesday, took the decision to extend the ban on Maoist outfits, in view of the continuing Maoist violence in the state.
The Maoists who are trying to gain a stronghold in Assam have 114 identified cadres working in the state, as per the information gathered by the special task force of Assam Police that was constituted to study the menace.
Interestingly for a section which had faith in gunpowder in the past, the Maoists have chosen a Buddhist monk as one of their independent representatives.
Maoists fired indiscriminately at a police station in Giridih, blew up a building and set on fire trucks on the Grand Trunk road in the wee hours on Thursday to protest the arrest of their two associates. A group of armed Maoists attacked the Pirtand Police station around 0100 hrs and started firing at random, Superintendent of Police, A V Homker, said.
According to the police, CPI-Maoist central committee member Sande Rajamouli alias Prasad was killed in an exchange of fire with a special police party in the vicinity of Dharmavaram railway station at 10 pm.
Kerala Police sources said the recent arrest of two Maoist operatives -- Sikin and Sivaraman -- from rural areas of Palakkad district revealed that Roopesh and his wife Shiny, who are both in hiding, were heading the Maoist movement in the state.
'India is my country and we will raise our voice against anybody who harms the interests of Adivasis, be it the state government or the Maoists.'
United States on Thursday lifted sanctions on Nepal's Maoists and removed it from the list of designated terrorist organisations, years after the rebels abandoned their armed struggle.
Armed Maoists killed three persons and injured as many at Dariani Chapra in Bihar's Sheohar district on Monday night, according to the police. The Maoists came by a truck to a market place and fired indiscriminately into the crowd, killing three persons on the spot.The injured were rushed to a government hospital, where their condition was stated to be critical. Patrolling was intensified in the area after the attack.
A block development officer was kidnapped by armed Maoists from Ladhoura village in Bihar's naxal-hit Sheohar district on Sunday.
A top leader of the Communist Party of India -Maoist has gone missing and the organisation suspects that he is in the custody of special investigations bureau of Andhra Pradesh police.
The Maoists are recruiting and indoctrinating children and had constituted children's squads and associations as part of mass mobilisation, a United Nations report said.
The Supreme Court said on Friday keeping activist Gautam Navlakha under house arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case further will set a "wrong precedent" and directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to apprise it of his current medical condition and the stage of trial.
At least five Maoists were killed in a fierce gunbattle with security forces in Orissa's Jajpur district on Sunday.
The West Bengal police on Saturday night said Maoists were behind the Gyaneshwari Express derailment and claimed to have identified the culprits behind the incident that has claimed 136 lives so far. "Those who did it are all members of Maoist squads. We have identified them and a search is on to nab them," Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh told reporters. He said two members of a Maoist squad, who were recently released on bail, had led the operation.
Three people were killed in a Maoist attack in a Bihar town, police officials said on Thursday night.The three people were killed when armed Maoists attacked a medical store in Munger district. However, the owner of the medical store escaped unhurt, police sources said.According to police sources, frightened local residents told them that over 100 armed Maoists attacked the medical store.
With Sunday's encounter, the number of left-wing extremists killed in 98 exchanges of fire with the police in the state during the year has risen to 137.
The Unified CPN-Maoist that had been singing anti-India tune and blaming the Nepal Army for the stalled peace process has now changed its course and blasted on "spirits and ghosts" for hatching conspiracy against the Maoists.
Bhattarai said his party 'Naya Shakti Nepal' would bear the "historic responsibility" of making Nepal prosperous and developed.
Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Friday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain how Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee continued to be a minister in his government when her party is 'openly' supporting Maoists."I want to ask the prime minister, 'you say that Maoists are a threat to the country's internal security and those supporting these Maoists and intensifying the threat are in your Cabinet, he said.
While the official media is silent on the issue, Chinese blogs and websites are much kinder to the banned Maoist rebels, writes China expert D S Rajan.
'I don't know if he put up a front but he never let me feel his morale was down. He told me how he was tackling the problems he was facing, or if there was some way the lawyers could help, but he would always tell me not to worry with a big broad smile.'
Maoists on Saturday called for a 48-hour bandh in five states from May 18 to protest against a slew of decisions taken by the Centre, including those concerning some public sector units. The bandh call has been given in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh."Maoists will observe a bandh on May 18 and May 19 in the five states to protest against the Centre's decision to sell ten per cent government's stake in 10 profit-making PSUs,"Maoist leader Kishenji said.
Soon after Subba Rao's death, the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee alleged that the police had arrested Subba Rao and his wife Jaya at Vijayawada on Thursday night.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren called on Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Wednesday and briefed him on the various measures taken by his government to tackle Naxals.
Three days after being freed by Maoists, Odisha Member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka on Sunday said the ultras are likely to release a fresh audio message which could clear the air over his possible resignation as a legislator.
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