Jhapa revolt In the early 1970s he was one (along with his brother,
R.K. Mainali) of the radical communists who led the
Jhapa rebellion, inspired by the
Naxalite movement in
India.
Early politics From 1965 onwards he was involved in the student movement. In 1970, Mainali joined the
Communist Party of Nepal. During his years as a political activist, he had aliases ('party names') such as Jay, Subhas, Devi and Kanchan. Mainali was then named Minister for Local Development and Supply.
CPN (UML) split In 1998
CPN (UML) was torn by internal strife. Mainali and
Bam Dev Gautam led a break-away group that was named
Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist). CPN (ML) briefly joined a
Nepali Congress government led by
G.P. Koirala. In the
1999 parliamentary elections CPN (ML) failed miserably to challenge the domination of CPN (UML). The party did get an impressive 6.4% of the national vote, but failed to win a single seat. At the time of the 2000 CPN (ML) party congress, Mainali challenged
Bam Dev Gautam for the post of general secretary. Whereas Gautam upheld the line of People's Multiparty Democracy as formulated by
Madan Kumar Bhandari (which was also the political line of CPN (UML)), Mainali argued for a more radical political approach. In 2002 CPN (ML) and CPN (UML) re-unified. However, C.P. Mainali refused to go along with the merger and refounded
CPN(ML). He remained as the general secretary of the party. During the anti-government protests in 2002–2006, Mainali was one of the main leaders of the
United Left Front. He has served as ULF chairman for a period. Following the February 1, 2005 royal coup d'état, Mainali was placed in house arrest. He was released on February 25.
Constituent assembly In January 2007, Mainali was inducted into the
interim parliament. He was the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee of the interim parliament. After the
2008 Constituent Assembly election, Mainali became a Constituent Assembly member.
As Deputy Prime minister Mainali served as deputy prime minister for a brief period in the first Oli cabinet. He was also assigned Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare. == Notes ==