Madan Bhandari

Who was Madan Bhandari?

Madan Kumar Bhandari was a Nepali politician and communist leader. He is one of the historical personalities in Nepal history who fought for democracy.

Bhandari was born in Dhungesangu Village in the district of Taplejung, Nepal. He studied in Medibung School in Taplejung and in Varanasi, India. Inn 1972 he was named central committee member of the Janabadi Sanskritik Morcha, a student movement launched by Pushpa Lal Shrestha. Around 1976 he left Pushpa Lal's Communist Party of Nepal to launch the Mukti Morcha Samuha, which formed an alliance with the survivors of the Jhapa Movement in 1978. He was a founder member of the Communist Party of Nepal preceding the 1980 referendum and was elected general secretary at its fourth national in 1986.

When CPN merged into the Communist Party of Nepal in 1991, Bhandari became the general secretary. Bhandari was the engineer behind the programme of CPN "People's Multiparty Democracy", which led his party as the strongest communist party of Nepal for several years even after his death.