FROM MANMOHAN SINGH'S WARNING TO AMIT SHAH'S DEADLINE, HOW BASTAR WAS RECLAIMED FROM NAXALS

Almost 10 months ahead of the March 2026 deadline given by Amit Shah, Naxalism is breathing its last.

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In August 2024, Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing a press conference in Chhattisgarh's capital, Raipur, declared that by March 2026, Naxalism would be eradicated from the face of India.

Journalists present at the press conference couldn't help but exchange wry smiles at what they believed was an exaggerated claim-especially since, not long ago, Naxalism had been described by former Prime Minister, the late Manmohan Singh as India's biggest internal security threat.

When Singh made this observation in October 2009, 83 of India's 640 districts were classified as affected by Left-Wing Extremism or Naxalism. By 2013, that number had surged to 126 districts across 10 states.

Now, almost 10 months ahead of Shah's deadline, Naxalism is, for all practical purposes, breathing its last.

According to a recently released Ministry of Home Affairs notification, the number of Naxal-affected districts has dropped to just 18 as of April 2025.

Significantly, once the epicentre of the insurgency, even Bastar and Kondagaon in Chhattisgarh have now been officially removed from the list.

This dramatic contraction or collapse as some would like to call, of the so-called "Red Corridor" comes less than a year after Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that Naxalism would be eradicated by March 2026.

In 2024, 38 districts across nine states were still officially classified as LWEaffected. These included 15 in Chhattisgarh, 7 in Odisha, 5 in Jharkhand, 3 in Madhya Pradesh, 2 each in Maharashtra, Kerala, and Telangana, and 1 each in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

The sharp drop from 38 in 2024 to 18 in 2025 reflects an accelerated phase of counterinsurgency operations and targeted development over the past 12 months, officials told The Sunday Guardian.