Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday reviewed the security situation with the chief ministers of Maoist-affected states and appealed to the ultras to lay down their arms and join the mainstream.

The minister said 194 Maoists had been neutralised, 801 arrested and 742 had surrendered in Chhattisgarh alone since January. Last week, security forces killed at least 31 Maoists during an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar in one of the most successful operations against them in recent times.

The Maoist-affected states include Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Shah said the security forces had launched all-out counter-offensive operations against Naxals and had achieved big successes in recent times.

Addressing the chief ministers and top officials of the Maoist-affected states, Shah said that because of the improved security situation, high voter turnout — up to 70 per cent — was witnessed in the insurgency-afflicted region in the last Lok Sabha polls. There was zero polling in the region earlier, he said.

“The security forces are now carrying out offensive operations instead of defensive operations that used to be carried out earlier,” Shah said.

Shah said the Maoists were the biggest human rights violators who had been depriving over eight crore people of development and basic welfare opportunities.

Sources in the Union home ministry said cases of violence related to Left-wing extremism had come down by 72 per cent while there was an 86 per cent decline in deaths in 2023 compared to 2010.