For the first time since the 1990s, Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district faces the prospect of a future without armed Maoist presence. On Thursday, the last two remaining “hardcore cadres” of the Maoists, Divisional Committee Member Deepak alias Sudhakar and Area Committee Member Rohit alias Manglu, surrendered at a CRPF camp in Balaghat, bringing an operational close to a 35-year chapter of the insurgency in Madhya Pradesh. “The Maoist movement that began in 1988-90 as an armed insurgency has now come to a complete halt in Madhya Pradesh,” said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. Balaghat SP Aditya Mishra told The Indian Express that the surrender of the two men followed two major collapses in the Maoist structure over the past month — the fall of commander Kabir’s 10-member group from the Kanha–Bhoramdeo Division, and the surrender of Central Committee Member Ramdher in Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh. “Together, these surrenders dismantled the leadership, logistics, and ideological scaffolding sustaining Maoists across this forested tri-junction of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh,” Mishra said. Senior officers said these two surrenders created a “vacuum …