Why Madvi Hidma's killing is a big blow to Maoists: ruthless tactician, figure of inspiration

For nearly three decades, the name Madvi Hidma had travelled through the forests of Bastar — a warning, a legend, often a myth. On Tuesday, that shadowy figure, the Maoists’ most feared battlefield commander and their only tribal leader to rise from child recruit to the organisation’s top decision-making bodies, was killed in an encounter with the Andhra Pradesh Police .

His death, officials say, may be the single biggest blow to the CPI (Maoist) in the last 20 years, not merely because he was a ruthless tactician responsible for the bloodiest attacks on security forces, but because he was the last inspirational figure left in a movement struggling with age, exhaustion, and irrelevance.

Making of Hidma’s myth

Hidma’s story begins in Puvarti, a tiny village on the Sukma–Bijapur bor