“It’s over for the Maoists. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is finished,” said a Telangana-based intelligence officer, soon after Madvi Hidma, 51, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders, was killed in an encounter with the Andhra Pradesh police on November 18.

Besides Hidma, a Central Committee member of the CPI(Maoist), his wife and four others were among those killed.

While security and intelligence officials in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha believe Hidma’s killing is a huge setback for the outfit, they concede that they still have Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji and Misir Besra alias Sunirmal, both Politburo and Central Committee members, to reckon with.

Even as former Maoists and intelligence officials maintained that Devuji had been elevated to the role of the pa

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