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The Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday nominated two ministers, K Vijayarama Rao and Tammineni Seetharam, to hold talks with the outlawed People's War Group.
Official sources said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu finalised the team soon after holding an all-party meeting in Hyderabad on Monday.
Rao, who is the commercial taxes minister, is a former Central Bureau of Investigation director and former principal secretary (home) of Andhra Pradesh.
Seetharam, who hails from Srikakulam district, where Naxalism had its birth in the state in 1968, is the excise and prohibition minister.
Sources said that the government had invited for talks the two representatives named by the PWG -- revolutionary writer Varavara Rao and balladeer Gaddar.
The preliminary round of talks is expected to be held on Wednesday and it will seek to evolve an agenda for a full-fledged dialogue to find a lasting solution to the protracted problem.
At a media meet on June 1, Varavara Rao and Gaddar had demanded that only political representatives should participate in the talks since Naxalism was a political issue. They had opposed bureaucrats and police officials representing the government in the talks.
However, they said they had no objection to the nomination of Vijayarama Rao. "Since he is a responsible minister, we will have no objection despite his police background," Varavara Rao said.
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