'Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre)', a in
Nepal. CPN(UC) was formed on
November 19-
20 1990, through the merger of
Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal),
Communist Party of Nepal (Fourth Convention),
Proletarian Workers Organsation and
Communist Party of Nepal (Janamukhi). Soon thereafter a group led by Dr.
Baburam Bhattarai and Shital Kumar, that had left
Communist Party of Nepal (Masal) joined the party.
[1] Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal was set up as the open mass front of the party.
The next year the party held its first convention. It adopted a line of "protracted armed struggle on the route to a new democratic revolution" and that the party would remain an underground party.
[2]
In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiralling prices as a result of implementation of changes in policy of the new
Congress government, SJM and CPN(UC) stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up together with the
Communist Party of Nepal (Masal), the
Nepal Communist League and the
Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). A
general strike was called for
April 6.
Violent incidents began to occur on the evening ahead of the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violent erupted outside
Bir Hospital when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on April 6, clashes between strike activists and police outside a police station in Pulchok (
Patan) left two activists dead.
Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at Tundikhel in the capital
Kathmandu was attacked by police forces. As a result riots broke out, and the
Nepal Telecommunications building was set on fire. Police opened fire at the crowd, killing several persons. The
Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 people, including several on-lookers, had been killed in police firing.
[2]
In
1994 a group led by Bhattarai and
Pushpa Kamal Dahal broke away from CPN(UC) and formed a parallel CPN-UC. In
1996 that group took the name
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
In
2002 CPN(UC) merged with
Communist Party of Nepal (Masal) and formed
Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre-Masal).
References
1. [1]
2. Hoftun, Martin, William Raeper and John Whelpton. People, politics and ideology: Democracy and Social Change in Nepal. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1999. p. 189