Hyderabad, March 11 -- The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), which has lost several top Maoist leaders and cadre in large numbers in the exchange of fire with the security forces in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh and its borders of Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra in the last one year, is also fast losing its intellectual base and ideological strength, people familiar with the matter said.

One of the main reasons is the fast dwindling of intellectual leadership from the Telugu states at the top level, which had dominated the Maoist outfit in the last two decades. Many of the top leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh who were at the helm in the outfit have either been killed in encounters or died of age-related issues or...