Ten members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) surrendered before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav in Balaghat district on Sunday.

The persons carried a collective reward of Rs 2.3 crore, The New Indian Express reported.

The group was part of the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh special zone, operating mainly in the Kanha-Bhoradev division, which covers Balaghat and Mandla districts in Madhya Pradesh and Kabirdham district in Chhattisgarh.

After the surrender, Yadav said that Dindori and Mandla districts are “Maoist-free”.

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“And in Balaghat, their presence has almost come to an end,” Yadav added. “In the Kanha-Bandhavgarh tiger reserve region, where there was once a possibility of Maoist activity…that possibility is now zero.”

Among those who surrendered were Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh Zone Secretary and Special Zonal Committee member Surendra alias Kabir Sodi (50), Special Zonal Committee member Rakesh Odi alias Manish, and area committee members Lalsingh Marawi, Salita alias Savitri, Navin Nuppo alias Hidma, Jaisheela alias Lalita Oyam, Vikram alias Hidma Vatti, Zarina alias Jogi Musak, and Samar alias Somaru, the newspaper reported.

This is the second surrender of Maoists in Madhya Pradesh under the state’s new rehabilitation policy introduced in August 2023.

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The first was on November 1, when a 23-year-old woman Maoist, Sunita, surrendered at the Chauriya camp of Madhya Pradesh’s anti-Naxal Hawk Force. She was a member of the Gondia-Rajnandgaon-Balaghat division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and carried a reward of Rs 14 lakh.

The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

In October, the Union home ministry said that the number of districts across states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.