Who was Madvi Hidma? India’s most wanted Maoist commander behind 26 attacks killed in encounter in Andhra

Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, one of the most wanted Maoist commanders in India, was killed in an encounter by security forces in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitharamaraju district on Tuesday (Nov 18). A native of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh, Hidma, whose name had become synonymous with some of the deadliest attacks in the country, was responsible for at least 26 armed attacks against civilians and Indian forces. His killing marks a significant blow to the outlawed CPI (Maoist) in recent years.

Hidma, along with his wife Raje and other members of the Maoist group, including Chelluri Narayana and Tech Shankar, were also killed in the operation. Hidma was involved in the 2017 Sukma attack that killed 26 CRPF officers and the Dantewada attack, in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed. He was eliminated before the November 30 deadline set by the forces for his capture, officials said.

Who was Madvi Hidma?

Also known by his aliases Hidmalu and Santosh, Madvi Hidma was born in 1981 in Purvathi, Sukma, Chhattisgarh. The 43-year-old spent nearly two decades rising through the Maoist ranks. He was the head of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) Battalion No. 1, which is considered the most deadly strike unit of Maoists. The youngest member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Hidma was the only tribal from the Bastar region to hold this position. He was among the most wanted Maoist commanders in the country with a bounty of Rs 50 lakh placed on his head.

Hidma operated across the dense forests of the Dandakaranya region and was responsible for at least 26 lethal attacks, including the Sukma attack in 2017, the Jhiram Valley massacre in 2013 that killed 27 people, including prominent Congress leaders from Chhatigarah. He was also behind the 2010 Dantewada attack that killed 76 CRPF personnel and the Sukma-Bijapur encounter in 2021 that led to the killing of 22 security personnel.

IG Bastar P Sundarraj earlier said that they aim to make Chhattisgarh naxal-free by March 31, 2026. In the last 20 months, more than 2200 Naxals have joined the mainstream.

“Left Wing Extremism has been a bigger security challenge not just for Bastar and Chhattisgarh but for the major part of the country for the last few decades. The last few years have been very decisive for the security forces in the Bastar region. In the last two seasons, we have recovered over 450 Naxalite bodies in the Bastar region. In this period, the bodies of top Naxal cadres like Basavaraju and others were recovered. In the last couple of months, more than 300 Maoist cadres, including the Central Committee and Politburo members and other Divisional committee members, have decided to shun violence and join the mainstream,” IG Sundarraj said.