Shah to meet eight CMs over Left-wing extremism today

Kerala and West Bengal are the two notable absentees from the review meeting which Home Minister Amit Shah has called of eight Left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected states on October 7. Incidentally, Bihar is among the eight invited states, even though none of its districts come in the list of 38 LWE-affected districts.

The Centre has officially stated in Parliament that there are only 38 LWE-affected districts in nine states in 2024. Of these, 15 are in Chhattisgarh, seven in Odisha, five in Jharkhand, three in MP, two each in Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana and one each in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Though Bihar is nowhere on this list, yet its CM will be there in the October 7 meeting called by Shah in the national capital, along with CMs of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana.

Plugging escape routes of Naxals, real time intelligence- sharing among all the Naxal violence-affected states and ensuring better coordination among security agencies in taking forward operations against LWE will be the focal points during the meeting.

Highly placed sources informed The Tribune that during the meeting, CMs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will give presentations on the two-pronged strategy of combating Naxal violence through real time intelligence sharing and development work being done to counter the negative impact of extremists.

The meeting is being held to work on strategies to combat LWE keeping in mind the Centre’s deadline of eliminating Naxal violence by March 2026.