Janamorcha Nepal

Janamorcha Nepal

जनमोर्चा नेपाल
Janamorcha Nepal जनमोर्चा नेपाल
Leader	Lila Mani Pokhrel
Founded	10 July 2002
Dissolved	13 January 2009
Merger of	Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal; Rastriya Janamorcha
Merged into	UCPN (Maoist)
Election symbol
	Politics of Nepal; Political parties; Elections;

Janamorcha Nepal (Nepali: जनमोर्चा नेपाल, lit. 'People's Front Nepal') was founded in 2002 as the mass organisation and electoral front of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre–Masal). It was formed following the merger between the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal) when their respective fronts Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal and the Rashtriya Jana Morcha joined together on 10 July 2002.^[2]

History

The party was formed with a 51-member ad hoc committee under the chairmanship of Amik Sherchan targeting the proposed general elections in November 2002.^[2]

Jana Andolan

During the Loktantra Andolan uprising of 2006 Janamorcha Nepal joined the Seven Party Alliance. After the end of the direct rule by King Gyanendra, Janamorcha Nepal was split into three along with its main party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre–Masal). The party initially had six members in the Interim Parliament. A group led by Chitra Bahadur K.C. split along with three members of the Interim Parliament. This group later reconstituted the Rastriya Janamorcha. Another group led by Chitra Bahadur Ale split with two members of the Interim Parliament and later merged with other communist factions and formed Communist Party of Nepal (Unified).^[3] Lila Mani Pokharel was the only member of parliament renaming in the original Janamorcha Nepal. He was later joined by three more nominated members; Asarphi Sada, Anjana Bisankhe and Kaman Singh Lama.^[4] Janamorcha Nepal retained its membership in the ruling Eight Party Alliance and Giriraj Mani Pokharel and Shahi Shrestha joined the interim government as Minister for Health and State Minister for Health respectively.^[1]

Constituent Assembly election and dissolution

The party contested the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections and gained seven seats; two in direct elections, five from party list, in the 1st Constituent Assembly. Narayan Kaji Shrestha was later nominated to the Constituent Assembly taking their total to eight seats.

In August 2008, Sherchan was deposed as chairman of Janamorcha Nepal and suspended for three months, after having urged support for Ram Baran Yadav in the presidential election. Lila Mani Pokhrel was appointed acting chairman by the Central Committee of Janamorcha Nepal.^[5]

In October 2008, the Janamorcha Nepal and its mother party, CPN (Centre–Masal) merged with CPN (Maoist) to form the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Amik Sherchan, Lila Mani Pokharel and Giriraj Mani Pokharel were inducted into the Standing Committee of the new party.^[6]

Electoral performance

Election	Leader	Votes		Seats		Position	Resulting government
Election	Leader	No.	%	No.	+/-	Position	Resulting government
2008	Amik Sherchan	164,381	1.53	7 / 575		9th	In coalition with the CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (UML), MJFN, Sadbhavana, and CPN (United)