A file photo of Mallojula Venugopal Rao alias Sonu Bhupati.

NAGPUR: Senior most guerrilla Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Sonu ‘Bhupati’, 69, the Central Committee powerhouse and politburo firebrand who had earlier appealed for a truce, surrendered at Gadchiroli police headquarters in Maharashtra on Tuesday with 62 cadres, signaling the end of state’s five-decade-long Maoist insurgency. Bhupati, who led a relentless campaign against security forces for over 30 years and was the brother of slain Maoist ‘Kishenji’, entered Gadchiroli early in the morning with his cadres and laid down 54 weapons.Holed up in the booby-trapped, forested Maoist headquarters of Abujmarh, the last remaining guerrillas had been under siege as the monsoon receded. Multi-state forces — C-60 commandos, Greyhounds, and CRPF units — had taken positions to storm Abujmarh and flush out the guerrillas. Bhupati’s wife, Tarakka, had paved the way a year earlier, surrendering after 38 years of guerrilla activity; her bounty of Rs 1 crore underscored her formidable legacy.While official records indicated about 25 armed holdouts remained, the surrendering convoy from Abujmarh swelled in numbers on Tuesday.Gadchiroli, the cradle of Maharashtra’s red rebellion since the 1970s, breathed easier, bolstering Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s 2026 Naxal-free vision and signaling a major victory for law enforcement in the state.