Hours after a dreaded Chhattisgarh-based top Maoist leader surrendered along with his spouse, the Congress leaders here said that the ultra might cough up key information about the reasons and motives for a deadly attack on Congress convey in restive Bastar region on May 25 last year, which had wiped out virtually the entire leadership of Congress in Chhattisgarh.
Gudsa Usendi alias GVK Prasad, a terror icon in Chhattisgarh’s vast southern tip had surrendered in Hyderbadad on Wednesday. Usendi, a high ranking member and spokesperson of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), was carrying a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head. Usendi was actively involved in several major killings on civilians, police and para-military troopers for the past 22 years.
“The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is in the process of examining witnesses and gathering evidences. The surrender of Usendi would now offer crucial inputs in the investigation,” Chhattisgarh Congress president Bhupesh Baghel told media persons here. He said the Judicial Commission set up by the Chhattisgarh Government to probe into the massacre had sought an additional three months time to complete its investigation. “The State Government needs to clarify on the status of the extension granted to the Commission’s tenure and make the report public.”
It may be mentioned that hundreds of Naxals in civilian clothes struck a convoy of Congress leaders during the party's Parivartan Rally in Chhattisgarh's Jagdalpur on May 25, 2013, killing at least 25 people, including State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and senior party leader Mahendra Karma. Former Union minister and senior Congress leader VC Shukla was also injured in the attack and later died in a hospital in Gurgaon after two weeks.
On the party’s plans for the forthcoming lok Sabha polls, Baghel said the party has actively commenced preparations for the polls in Chhattisgarh. “We held our district-level meetings in Bastar, Kanker and Raigarh today (Wednesday) to draw out plans for poll preparations. The suggestions from the district level party leaders were gathered in the meeting for providing further momentum to our poll preparations,” he said. Baghel said every region in Chhattisgarh has a separate issue and the party workers would go to the electorate with the Central Government schemes for Chhattisgarh as part of its lok Sabha poll campaign in the State. He said Congress party would field candidates from all the 11 lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh and try to win all of them.
On the issue of the minimum support price for paddy promised by the ruling party in its Assembly poll promises, Baghel said that the promise made by the ruling party must be fulfilled immediately. “The farmers had been feeling deceived and the Congress party has decided to launch an agitation from January 11 in front of all the co-operative banks in Chhattisgarh to demand the support price for paddy promised by the ruling party in its poll promises,” he said.