Reward of Rs 20 lakhs, lover, and a better life were the three reasons for Gudsa Usendi, official spokesperson of the Communist Party of India-Maoist Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), to surrender to the Andhra Pradesh police, according to the Maoists.

In an exclusive 14 minutes telephone conversation, the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) secretary Ramanna (alias Ravulu Sriniwas) condemned Gudsa Usendi’s surrender and termed him as a traitor.  “Santoshi Markam, who surrendered with Gudsa Usendi, is a local maoist cadre and not his wife,” Ramanna claimed. Raje is the second wife of Usendi whom he married in 2000 after death of his first wife, Sabita. Raje is still active in the naxal movement, Ramanna informed.

The DKSZC criticized him for trying to derail the movement and giving up the arms struggle for better life. “Usendi, whose real name is Gumudavelli Venkatakrishna Prasad, was on suspicion radar for long. If he had any issues like ideological difference then he should have brought it to the right platform and not to the police,” Ramanna said.

Ramanna was addressing Usendi as Sukhdev, another name that he used. Usendi, a native of Warangal district, was also a member of the DKSZC state committee and in-charge of the propaganda and press unit.  He spent 28 years underground, and was active in Chhattisgarh.

From 1993 to 1996, Usendi went back to his normal life keeping aside the movement. The Maoists took him back again only after thorough surveillance. His actions were not very dignified in the cadre. In 1999 he was stripped off his position after he was involved in an extra-marital affair with a female comrade in the jungle. After death of his first wife, the central committee permitted him to marry Raje in 2000. But his inclination towards other females did not stop and he developed a relation with Santoshi Markam, with whom he eventually eloped and surrendered.

Usendi was incorporated in mainstream in the jungle war in September 2006 during central committee conference.

An ill health is just an excuse, Ramanna said, and added that big money, fear of police encounter, and better life outside with his lover prompted him to give up his arms to police. The government was in constant efforts to identify such weak links in the Maoists by wooing them with big money and better life. Despite such tactics the movement will not die and ultimately the people will win over the state’s atrocities, the maoist leader asserted.

Ramanna said whatever Usendi told media after surrender was an utter lie and has no truth at all. Usendi never brought up these issues in the maoist forum. DKSZC Secretary said that people in tribal areas are demanding to punish such traitors in public court.

Before hanging up the phone, Ramanna said Usendi’s surrender is the not the first or last of its kind, but the movement will not die and Maoists will learn from such incidents.

Andhra Pradesh police did not comment on the maoist reaction over the surrender. The police said Gudsa Usendi would get Rs 20 lakh, the reward announced by the state government for his capture.

Under the policy of the state government, all surrendered underground Maoists get the reward amount for their rehabilitation.

DGP Prasad Rao said a surrendered member of the central committee gets Rs 25 lakh and a member of the state committee Rs 20 lakh.

"The money is given only to encourage the underground cadre to surrender and join the mainstream," Rao said, and claimed that more Maoists were ready to lay down arms.

Rao said 275 Maoists are still underground but only 77 were active in the state while others were in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

As many as 11 out of 17 members of the central committee of the CPI-Maoist are from Andhra Pradesh, which was once considered a stronghold of Maoists. Out of six members of its politburo, four are from Andhra Pradesh.