For much of his 47 years, Paritala Ravindra lived by the gun. Last week, the Naxalite renegade turned Telugu Desam Party activist expectedly fell to it. Exactly 20 years after the police picked up a fugitive Naxalite trying to flee from his native Venkatapuram village disguised as a lorry driver, the TDP gave him a hero's farewell as he was buried in the fields in front of his fortified village home.

PICTURE SPEAK

POLITICAL END: People pay homage to Ravindra; Jaganmohan (below)

Ravindra was killed while coming out of the TDP office in Anantpur district. The killers who lay in wait pumped several rounds of bullets into the man who was one of the most heavily guarded legislators in Andhra Pradesh. Five personal security officers assigned to protect him fled as Ravindra slumped.

In a swift retaliatory strike, TDP activists went on a rampage, stoning and setting buses on fire, ransacking government offices and ordering the closure of shops. While 85 state buses were burnt and 567 damaged, the mayhem is said to have caused a loss of over Rs 20 crore.

Ravindra's end, however, wasn't entirely surprising. An accused in over 40 murders in Anantpur, he had survived earlier attempts on his life-recently his security was beefed up following a court fiat. An overcautious man, he moved about in a fleet of vehicles of the same make and colour and with fake number plates to prevent easy spotting. He also maintained a loyal army of followers in Venkatapuram.

Ravindra's meteoric rise in politics sprang from his modest agrarian past. His grandfather and father, both small-time farmers, rose in revolt against the ruthless Reddy landlords of the region, protesting against the centuries-old forced tax collection system. After spending his early years in the Naxal movement, Ravindra too took to the same path. He joined the TDP at the invitation of its founder N.T. Rama Rao, who made him the state's labour minister soon after his first electoral win.

His death is, therefore, a major setback for the TDP in Anantpur but the party is trying to recover lost ground. It got Ravindra's father-in-law to register a complaint giving the names of alleged conspirators, besides demanding the resignation of the chief minister and also a CBI probe. Those named in the complaint include Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, businessman son of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Panchayati Raj Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy, IGP (Rayalaseema) R.P. Meena and Bhanumathi, wife of G. Suryanarayana Reddy who is serving a jail term for his role in a car bomb attack on Ravindra.

When his son was named, the chief minister acted swiftly and handed over the investigation of the murder to the CBI. His worry is that the TDP will use it as a political whiplash against him and the Congress. "The lowly campaign is to be deplored. There are several dimensions to the murder which has no place in civil society, and only a thorough probe will establish who killed him and why," he said.

Video recordings of the meeting at the TDP office show the killers in cream safari suits on the first floor of the party office waiting in advance for Ravindra. They are all believed to be henchmen of Suryanarayana Reddy. Vengeful Venkatapuram meanwhile is seething for a brutal reprisal.

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