Communist Party of India (Maoist)

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Maoist insurgentcommunist party in India which aims to overthrow the government of India through people's war. It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War (People's War Group), and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). The merger was announced on 14 October the same year. In the merger a provisional central committee was constituted, with the erstwhile People's War Group leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao, alias "Ganapathi", as general secretary. Further, on May Day 2014, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Naxalbari merged into the CPI (Maoist). The CPI (Maoist) are often referred to as the Naxalites in reference to the Naxalbari insurrection conducted by radical Maoists in West Bengal in 1967.

In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to the Naxalites as "the single biggest internal security challenge" for India, and said that the "deprived and alienated sections of the population" forms the backbone of the Maoist movement in India. The government officials have declared that, in 2013, 76 districts in the country were affected by "left wing extremism", with another 106 districts in ideological influence.