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Dressed as a politician—white kurta-pajama and sports shoes—Ajay Kanu, 57, hardly fits the image of a once-feared Naxal commander.
Carrying a keypad mobile, it is difficult to believe that he was the face of the Maoist insurgency in Bihar for over three decades and the 'mastermind' of India’s biggest mass jail break in 2005. But behind this seemingly modest persona lies a stormy past—and a renewed political ambition.
Ajay Kanu, alias Ajay Sao, a former Naxal commander and member of the Kanu community, held his first political rally ‘Kanu Adhikar Rally’ at Patna’s Miller school ground on 17 June.
The rally was organised under the banner of Kanu Vikas Sangh—a body of the Kanu community in Bihar that accounted for 2.5% (30 lakhs) of state’s population and 6.14% of the state's Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), according to the 2022 caste survey.
Naxal Turned Community Leader
The Patna rally came a year after Kanu became the unopposed president of his community’s front. It is being seen as a show of strength to pressure political parties to ensure the community's political representation in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, scheduled for November 2025.
“I have fought for the rights of the marginalised and oppressed,” Kanu says. “To continue my mission, I want to dedicate the rest of my life for the upliftment of the Kanu community, whose socio-economic condition is as bad as Dalits and tribals using politics as a tool.”
The Kanu Adhikar Rally is more than a community event. It is Kanu’s attempt to consolidate the fragmented voices of his caste and elevate them to political power.
“We want nine tickets in the upcoming elections. We are ready to field our own candidates in Kanu-dominated regions,” he says. “If given the opportunity, I will contest too.”Ajay Kanu
“A 540-page 2011 survey report of Bihar government said that the Kanu community comprises over 5% of Bihar’s total population but the (2023) caste census reduced it to half,” he said.
The community is demanding Scheduled Caste status, a Kansar Ayog (Commission), recognition of grain-parching as an industry, and (tickets in) nine assembly seats in the upcoming November 2025 Bihar polls.
“We will go with the party which accepts our demands,” said Kanu, admitting that several meetings took place with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in the past year over the issue.
From ABVP to Left Politics
This is not the first time when Kanu is trying to find his feet in Bihar politics.
After the release in January 2020, Kanu went to his home in Chouhar village in Arwal district—34 km from Jehanabad. Arwal which was previously part of Jehanabad district.
Kanu took his first steps towards electoral politics joining Lokhit Adhikar Party, a regional political outfit in Bihar. He fielded wife Sharda Devi, in 2021 local body elections from Chauhar panchayat of Arwal district.
He gained the limelight in the political spectrum when he met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav in March 2024 seeking a parliamentary ticket for his wife to contest from Jehanabad seat, highlighting the community's increasing political aspirations.
“Lalu offered him an assembly ticket in 1995 from Arwal but he turned it down,” said Ganesh Kanu, working president of Kanu Vikas Sangh, who is an office bearer of the ruling Janata Dal (United). “Now, the time is right to enter the political arena.”
Kanu’s aspiration to become a politician goes back to 1986, when he joined Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)—RSS’ student body—becoming college president at Jehanabad’s SN College. “It took me two years to get exposed to the saffron agenda and I quit,” said Kanu.
He moved to Jehanabad following the murder of his brother Shajanand Prasad and his cousin Madhesar Prasad by the members of a dominant caste over a land dispute in January 1983.
His quest for justice through legal channels failed. Instead of receiving protection, he says he was slapped with false cases. “I explored all the avenues of justice but I didn’t find one. I was implicated in several cases instead. But it took me 18 years to prove my innocence in the Court.”
Move Towards Naxalism
Since his father Phagu Kanu, a writer for left-wing parties, was known for his wall writings against landlords, there are allegations that Ajay joined the Naxalite outfit People's War Group (PWG) to avenge his brothers in the early 80s. However, he had moved to Jehanabad for higher education at that time.
A year after his graduation, in 1988, he opened a school ‘Navin Bal Vidya Niketan’ in Jehanabad’s Professor’s Colony but was forced to shut it down within a year. “Men from the influential caste coerced me either to quit or shut down the school. I quit and returned to Arwal broken,” he recalled.
He admits that upon return, he joined an armed group to "wage a war for rightful wage, prevalent injustice in the region and against the wealthy landlords and moneylenders".
“We waged a war not for power, but for justice,” he explains. “When courts failed, people’s justice took over.”
“A notorious criminal of Karpi panchayat who was a member of an influential caste, and had patronage of upper caste landlords, was brought to justice (death) in late 1990 with a people’s mandate. It was people’s justice.”
Kanu faced another blow when his father was beaten to death in a land dispute by a local strongman in February 1994. His father was part of the Communist Party of India in the 1980s, but later joined an ultra-left group.
The series of events pushed Kanu deeper into the insurgency. “I was implicated in cases after the murder of my brothers and father. When Maoist cadres avenged my father, by that time, I had started taking part in Maoist's meetings. I left my village to be with them,” he said.
His understanding of the ideology, and the capacity to quickly learn helped him rise up the ranks, becoming member of the central committee of the Maoists, whose operations spanned states such as Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. Soon, he was made an area commander of the banned organisation, still in existence.
His reign of violent justice came to an end in August 2002 when police arrested him from Patna’s Bailey Road when his wife was expecting their first child. “I was tortured for the next 24 hours in custody,” he said.
Jailbreak and its Aftermath
He was later shifted to the overcrowded Jehanabad jail, where he earned the respect of his fellow inmates by organising protests inside the cell demanding better living conditions and food. His vocal stand against prevalent corruption and casteism within the jail scared the jail officials.
After a quarrel with the Jehanabad district collector who refused to grant permission to treat his toothache, he vowed to go out of jail himself saying, “Mai khud hi chala jaunga.”
In 2005, hundreds of Naxals stormed Jehanabad District Jail in the middle of the night to rescue Kanu and other supporters. The land around the jail and the roads leading to the national highway were carpeted with landmines. Every police picket was garrisoned.
Nearly a dozen people were killed and about half a dozen injured; police rifles and bullets were looted. The Government report says that 389 inmates escaped that night.
The strength of the overcrowded Jehanabad jail at the time was 659, against the official capacity of 140 inmates.
Reports indicate that Kanu took immediate control upon seizing an assault rifle during the attack. He allegedly shot and killed Bade Sharma, a Ranvir Sena commander, who "refused to comply with orders to leave the prison". Sena was an upper caste militia group at loggerheads with the Maoists in central Bihar at the time and they had orchestrated the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre in 1997, killing 58 Dalits.
According to the US Justice Department Report on Jehanabad Jailbreak, the militants used 30 upper caste inmates as human shields.
The jailbreak gained international attention, considered as India’s biggest mass jailbreak. The operation was executed by the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (India), a militant underground unit of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), of which Kanu was the commander.
He was apprehended again in February 2007, with two women activists from Burdwan railway station in West Bengal, while on his way to Gaya.
He was shifted to Patna’s Beur Central Jail. When in jail, Bihar police succeeded in proving his involvement in the jailbreak, leading to his conviction.
He faced 42 cases at the time of his arrest and has been cleared in 36 cases by the court. Kanu, however, was convicted in the Jehanabad jailbreak case and was released after the Patna high court granted him bail on December 4, 2019.
He came out of jail in January 2020, but was arrested again in what he says is a false case, and shifted to the high-security Bhagalpur jail. The Naxal leader was finally a free man in 2022.
“There are only four-five ongoing cases left to defend,” he said, adding that I was framed in many cases but it took me 18 years serving in major high-security prisons to prove my innocence in three dozen cases.
Now a free man, Kanu sold part of his farmland to fund his children’s education. His son is studying ITI; his daughter is training to be a nurse.
“We want nine tickets in the upcoming assembly polls. It's time for political maneuvering,” he said, looking at the rally's stage.
Ajay Kanu remains a controversial figure in Bihar politics. Some view him as a symbol of resistance against systemic oppression, others criticise his involvement in violent activities.
From a violent Naxal commander to a politician, he is in transition. But his name still evokes fear among many.
Whether his political plans will be as successful as the jailbreak remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Ajay Kanu is no longer hiding in the shadows. He is stepping onto the political stage—with history on his shoulders and ambition in his eyes.