Madan Kumar Bhandari

Madan Kumar Bhandari ( _ne. मदन कुमार भण्डारी) (June 27, 1952K.C., Surendra. "Aitihasik dastavej sangroh - bhag 2". Kathmandu: Pairavi Prakashan, 2063 B.S.. p 464.] – 1993) was a Nepali politician and communist leader.

Bhandari was born in Taplejung. He studied in Varanasi, India and in 1972 was named central committee member of the Janabadi Sanskritik Morcha (Democratic Cultural Front), a student's movement launched by Pushpa Lal Shrestha. Around 1976 he left Pushpa Lal's Communist Party of Nepal to launch the Mukti Morcha Samuha ("Liberation Front Group"), which formed an alliance with the survivors of the Jhapa Movement in 1978. He was a founder member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) preceding the 1980 referendum and was elected general secretary at its fourth national in 1986.

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

In 1993 Bhandari died, supposedly in a car crash without anyone as eye witness. Many believe he was murdered. Among the three passengers inside the car, only the driver Amar Lama survived and two leaders Madan Bhandari and Jeev Raj Ashrit died. The then government formed a probe committee but officially the car crash was reported as an accident without any sign of conspiracy. Possible conspiracy again came into concern after the only survivor of that crash, Driver Amar Lama was murdered after about 10 years.

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