Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)
Updated: Wikipedia source
The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (CPN (UML)) is a communist political party in Nepal. The party emerged as one of the major parties in Nepal after the end of the Panchayat era. It remained second largest party in the federal parliament until it was dissolved in the aftermath of the 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests and has urged for its reinstatement or else it will not be taking part in the next election to be scheduled. Khadga Prasad Oli has been serving as party chairman since the party's ninth general convention in 2014. The party currently holds 79 seats in the House of Representatives, having won 26.95% of the party list votes in the 2022 general election and is the second largest parliamentary group. There have been four prime ministers from the party while the party has led the government six times with the most recent Oli government which was deposed by 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests. CPN (UML) was the main opposition in 1991 after the first election following the restoration of multi-party democracy. The party led a minority government under Manmohan Adhikari following the 1994 election. The party joined a coalition government with CPN (Maoist) in 2008 in the first elections after the end of the monarchy in Nepal and led two governments under Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal during the term of the 1st Constituent Assembly. The party also led the first government after the promulgation of the new constitution with KP Sharma Oli serving as prime minister. Oli again served as prime minister following the 2017 election. The party was formed in January 1991 after the merger of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist). The party merged with CPN (Maoist Centre) to form the Nepal Communist Party on 17 May 2018 but the new party was dissolved and CPN (UML) was revived by a Supreme Court decision on 8 March 2021. The party claimed to have 650,000 members as of August 2025, down from 855,000 in December 2021. In 2025, the Party faced a wave of criticism, including from many other Nepali communist groups, for accusations of engaging in mass nepotism, brutalizing protesters, backsliding democracy, banning social media and becoming the new elite it once overthrew. Its Chairman, KP Sharma Oli, resigned and dissolved the cabinet, as per protest demands. Later the parliament was dissolved for a fresh mandate.