As many as 210 Maoist cadres, including one Central Committee member, surrendered before authorities in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur on Friday, making it the largest mass surrender in the history of anti-Naxal operations in the state, officials said.

With this, a total of 238 Naxalites have quit the path of violence and joined the mainstream in the state in the last three days as 28 others had surrendered on Wednesday.

Hailing the development, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said it was a historic day not only for Bastar but for Chhattisgarh and the entire nation.

According to officials, Friday’s mass surrender - the largest in the history of anti-Naxal operations in the state - marks a decisive turning point in the government’s ongoing campaign to eliminate Left-Wing Extremism.

All the cadres, who surrendered before the police and paramilitary officials in Jagdalpur, the headquarters of the Bastar district, were formally welcomed into the mainstream by tribal community leaders and priests who greeted them with red roses, symbolising love, peace and a new beginning.

The surrendered cadres, senior police and paramilitary officials and tribal community leaders later posed for photographs.

The banner behind the stage, where cadres posed for photograph, read ‘Poona Margem - Punarwas se Punarjeevan- Maoist cadres rejoining the mainstream’.

On October 2 , as many as 103 Naxalites, 49 of them carrying a collective bounty of more than Rs 1.06 crore, surrendered in Bijapur district of Bastar region.