Gaddam Venkataramaiah, popularly known as Doranna, died on November 1, 2006 in Khammam, Andhra Pradesh. He was 94 years old and was ailing since the past two years. From the days when he first participated in political activity till he breathed his last, he firmly held on to his revolutionary convictions undeterred by the various downward swings in the revolutionary movement and by the onslaught of the State. CPI(ML)-New Democracy pays revolutionary homage to this fighter for the cause of oppressed people.

Com. Doranna hailed from a poor peasant family of Vissampally village in Warangal district. Most of the rural masses who subjected to feudal exploitation and oppression by the landlords, patels, patwaris during the autocratic rule of the Nizam in Hyderabad State. Doranna participated in the struggles against this exploitation in the village and later shifted to Pethallagadda village in Bayyaram Mandal of Khammam district. During that period he was attracted towards the activities of the Communist Party and the Andhra Maha Sabha which were leading organisations in the struggle against the feudal rule of the Nizam. He established links with the leaders of  these struggles and soon became a member of an armed squad during the armed peasant uprising  in the second half of the forties. It is said that he was taken into the armed squads upon his insistence to be one among the armed fighters who were in the forefront of the heroic Telengana Armed  Peasant Uprising. It was in these formations that he first learnt to read and write. In the face of this great mass upsurge, landlords, patels, patwaris fled from villages and lands were occupied and distributed. Doranna actively participated in the occupation and distribution of land.

The Central Government under Nehru sent Indian Army to suppress the armed peasant struggle. In the midst of the leadership taking the line of withdrawal, Doranna was among many who did not concur with it. Subsequently, he was arrested, tortured and sent to Gulbarga jail. After his release from jail, he had to start his life afresh and took to agriculture in his village. At the same time in the post-1951 period, he took active part in the various mass struggles that took place in the district. It was in this period he got married to Narsamma. In the split that took place in 1964, he like many other later communist revolutionaries sided with the CPM.

The Naxalbari peasant struggle in 1967 was a turning point in the history of the communist movement in the country. It also drew a line of demarcation between revisionism and Marxism, between parliamentary path and the path of protracted peoples war. On the heels of this struggle was the Srikakulam tribal armed movement and comrades like Doranna did not lose time to immediately identify themselves with these struggles and plunge into them. What is interesting in this period in Andhra Pradesh, was that the majority of the district committees in the state stood opposed to the line of the CPM leadership with the exception of Khammam. Though Doranna was not a member of the Khammam DC, he nevertheless took to the revolutionary path that inspired a lot many of the youth to join the CR stream.

When Comrade CP Reddy went into the Warangal forests in 1968, Com.Doranna, leaving his home and hearth at the age of forty, took initiative in organizing armed formations in the Yellendu forest region in Khammam district. In the Attlapragada Convention held on 7th April,1969  Com. Doranna took active part in the discussions that finally led to the formulation of the Immediate Programme. The Convention also adopted a document titled “On Problems Concerning the Srikakulam Movement”. In 1970 the work in the forest areas of Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam were brought under one Regional Committee comprising of five members of whom  Doranna was one. It was in this period that the document “Some Problems Concerning Peoples War Path” was brought out. In a situation when most of the important leaders of the APCCCR were arrested, with the exception of CP, PR and NR  problems cropped up within and in June '71,the jail leadership became the main cause for the eventual split in the organisation. Doranna participated in the Conference of the APRCP in 1973 which resolved to unite with the CPI(ML). During this period, when he was working in the Khammam forests, attempts were made on his life by the enemies. They tried to kill him through a covert but could not succeed.

During the dark days of the Emergency, the State did not allow his family to cultivate their land and members of his family were harassed regularly by the police. In this period two of the main leaders of the party were gunned down in fake encounters. Com.Neelam Ramchandraiah and P. Ramnarsaiah were arrested and shot dead in November 1975 and November 1976 respectively and as one police official remarked then that the two hands of the party were cut loose and only the head remained, referring to Com.CP. Com.Doranna in the midst of the above did not lose grit and firmly stood ground as a real communist revolutionary.

Com. CP described Doranna as the guardian of the squads. In 1980 at the Party Congress, CP himself proposed the name of Doranna in the PC panel. From then on till his death he was a member of the state committee of the party. But Doranna was a disturbed man when the unfortunate split took place in 1984. He firmly believed that the split could have been averted. Com. Doranna was arrested in 1987 while in ill-health. After his release, he continued as the Secretary of the Khammam DC till 1996.

In Doranna's death the communist revolutionary movement and CPI(ML)New Democracy  in particular has lost an invaluable comrade who throughout his life unswervingly served the cause of revolution. The true grit he exhibited under conditions of extreme strain and difficulties should be an example to every genuine communist. He was known for his sincerity to the cause and rose above self-interest that endeared him to the masses. On November 2, '06 when his body was brought to Bayyaram thousands flocked to see him for the last time.