Sabyasachi Panda

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 11: Sabyasachi Panda, the face of the Maoist movement in Odisha since 1991, would now be fighting not only state police and paramilitary forces, but also his own party, the CPI(Maoist).

The outlawed outfit, of which Panda was the Odisha state committee’s organising secretary, has expelled him and asked cadres to treat him as the “enemy”. This would make life even more difficult for Panda whose differences with the Maoist leadership began soon after he kidnapped two Italian nationals from the Kandhamal forests in March.

Top rebel leaders, including Ramakrishna (who operates both in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh), were unhappy with Panda for taking the foreigners hostage without taking them into confidence. He had also irked them by accusing them of committing atrocities against the Odisha cadres of the party.

Sources said the middle-aged rebel leader, who had been confined to a 75-km forest area between Ganjam and Kandhamal districts following intensified police operations, would now find the threat from his own erstwhile colleagues much more difficult to handle.

“They know his hideouts and are intent on seeking revenge. They are going to make the forests of Ganjam and Kandhamal too hot for him,” said a source.

Panda, the chief accused in Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati murder case, is believed to have floated his own outfit called the Odisha Maobadi Party. But, given his receding support base in the areas where he once used to rule the roost, it is unlikely to be of any real help.

If intelligence sources are to be believed, the fugitive leader is both short of men and material. “There are hardly five to six men left with him and his supply lines have been cut. He cannot survive in the jungle for long,” said an intelligence officer.

There is also a widespread speculation about the possibility of his surrender, though he himself has denied such reports on more than one occasion in the past. Sources said that the rebel leader might try to negotiate a face-saving deal with the police to avoid the humiliation of outright surrender.

“He may allow the police to arrest him on the condition that he would be dealt with leniently,” said a source.

Even for the police, the arrest of Panda would be a big achievement even after his expulsion from the CPI (Maoist). In him, they would find a mine of information on the activities and hideouts of top Maoist leaders operating not only in Odisha but also in the neighbouring states such as Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. That is why the Maoists want to get to him before the police do.

Panda’s wife, Subhashree Das alias Milli, reacted vehemently to the charges levelled against her husband by the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) while taking the decision to expel him. “How can they call him ease-loving. Had he wanted to lead an easy life he would not have followed the path of revolution and chosen to live in jungles,” she said adding that she perceived a threat to her husband from the Maoist organisation and its various factions.

Accusing the Maoist leadership of targeting her husband deliberately, Milli sought to know why did the CPI(Maoist) central committee keep quiet for so long when Panda had been criticising their decisions consistently. “Why were they silent for so long? And how can they justify killings?” she asked.

However, Milli, who was released from jail by the government in exchange for one of the Italians taken hostage by Panda in March, appeared distinctly worried about the future of her husband.