Kerala maoists under scanner

The Kerala Police and Intelligence are closely monitoring the activities of Maoists in the State, in the context of the attack by Maoists on a police outpost in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh on Thursday in which several personnel were killed.

Though there is no known direct link between the Maoists of Chhattisgarh and the Maoists in Kerala, the Intelligence people are looking for pattern similarities among the groups in the two States with the Chhattisgarh Maoists and also whether there are any activities going on here for intellectual and material resource mobilisation.

The Central Intelligence Bureau is of the opinion that the Maoists here, mainly two groups, have gained strength in the past two to three years. The districts where concentrated Maoist growth is observed include Wayanad, Palakkad, Idukki and Ernakulam. Intelligence sources say that Maoist groups were gaining ground in several other areas in the particular political context of the State where many traditionalists in the CPI(M) are disillusioned as reformists have gained a upper hand in the party.

The two leading Maoist groups, the CPI(ML) and the CPI(ML) Red Flag led respectively by KN Ramachandran and MS Jayakumar, have even gained electoral strength in central Kerala areas. Jayakumar’s outfit had won three seats in the 2005 civic polls in Nayarambalam gram panchayat in Ernakulam district. The party had even come close to wielding power in the panchayat, but they decided against it because if they had to rule, support of the members belonging to the now-defunct outfit of K Karunakaran, the DIC(K), was necessary

The Ramachandran group also has won seats in gram panchayats in Ernakulam district. They have got a seat each in the Elankunnappuzha and Njarakkal panchayats in the district.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had at a recent meeting in New Delhi of State Home Ministers handed over the documents regarding Maoist activities in Kerala to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.