NEW DELHI: The breaking away of a significant chunk of Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) is not just a major setback for its leader Prachanda but is also likely to impact the Maoist movement in India.

The breakaway group of 45 of the 149 central committee members headed by Mohan Baidya Kiran has already renewed ties with Indian Maoists, sources said.

Intelligence agencies are of the view that the split in Nepal will inject new energy to the Communist Party of India-(Maoist) and revive regular contact between the Maoists in India and Nepal. The relations between the CPI (Maoist) and the party in Nepal had dwindled since 2006, when Maoists joined the government in Kathmandu.

Interestingly, Mohan Baidya was the main person who kept in touch with CPI (Maoist). His breaking out of UCPN-M is likely to see a reshaping of the Maoist movement in both countries. Baidya’s new party is called the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M).

Before the final split at the Sherpa Sewa Samaj Building in Kathmandu between June 16 and 18, the last meeting of the rebel group was held in Delhi at a Karol Bagh hotel in the second week of April.

One of the issues that came up for discussion at the Karol Bagh meeting was whether rebellion would be possible without armed cadres, as the Maoist army had surrendered in Nepal when the party joined the government.

But leaders of the breakaway group assured that about “3,000 armed cadres” had not surrendered in the last six years and some arms and ammunition had been kept hidden, even as most of the weapons were surrendered to the government. These trained cadre and the arms would come in handy to start a new party, the rebel leaders said.

In fact, the coming together of the CPN (Maoist) and the CPI (Maoist) is likely to increase movement of men and arms across the India-Nepal borders.

Replying to a question recently on whether he will coordinate with regional Maoist parties, Baidya said, “The Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (COMPOSA) is an umbrella organization to struggle in the interest of patriotic, Leftist and all other pro-people elements in the South Asian region. It has been weakened for some time now. We will find ways to strengthen it again and carry on with it.”

COMPOSA had suffered a setback after Nepal’s Maoists joined the government.

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