The recent history of the CPN-Maoist can be traced back to the formation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre). In 1991, several ultra-left parties held a "Unity Congress" that passed a resolution to initiate a People’s War and to bring about a new "democratic" revolution in Nepal. Following the Unity Congress, the CPN (Unity Centre), an underground revolutionary party was formed by the merger of the CPN (Fourth Congress) and the CPN (Mashal), with Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, as its General Secretary. In 1994, the CPN (Unity Centre) split into two factions, one led by Prachanda and the other by Nirmal Lama. Meanwhile, the United People’s Front Nepal (UPFN), political front of CPN-Unity Centre also split, with Baburam Bhattarai’s faction of UPFN aligning with Prachanda’s faction of the (Unity Centre) and Niranjan Govinda’s faction of the UPFN aligning with Nirmal Lama’s faction of the CPN (Unity Centre). Both UPFN factions approached the Election Commission (EC) for registration but only Nirmal Lama’s was accorded official recognition. As a reaction, Baburam Bhattarai’s faction called for a boycott of the 1994 mid-term elections.

After the 1994 split, the Prachanda-led Unity Centre went underground; the party’s Third Plenum, in March 1995, changed its name to the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M or Maoists), officially renounced parliamentary elections, and began planning for a "People’s War". Subsequently the party also transformed its structure. Later, in September 1995, the Central Committee of the party adopted the plan to launch the People’s War. At the same time, it demanded socio-economic reforms including elections to a constituent assembly and the creation of a federal republic. It’s noteworthy that the CPN-Maoist People’s War was launched in February 1996, and continued unabated with increasing violence until April 2006.

Thereafter, the party returned to above-ground politics with the success of the second People’s Movement in 2006, when a truce was declared with the newly restored multi-party government. In 2006 and 2007 the Seven Party Alliance (SPA)1 of the mainstream political parties and the CPN-Maoist negotiated several agreements including a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that formally ended the 10-year old People’s War and put both the Nepal Army and the Maoist People’s Liberation Army in barracks or cantonments monitored by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).

The CPN-Maoist follows a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideological perspective. In 2001, the CPN-Maoist embraced the "Prachanda Path," a fusion of Chinese and Russian revolutionary theory. The "Prachanda Path" was intended to weave Marxist principles into a Nepalese context, and to prevent the party from falling into the self-defeating fundamentalism that has engulfed most successful revolutionary communist parties.

This party is headed by Chairman Prachanda. Following the Chunwang Central Committee meeting in Rukum (September, 2005), the earlier 95 member Central Committee was dissolved. Similarly, the Standing Committee and Politburo of the CPN-Maoist were also dissolved to form a new 28 member Central Committee functioning till date.

The party proposes a directly elected executive President and an indirectly elected Prime Minister. The party has proposed 11 autonomous federal states and two other sub-states within them on the basis of ethnic composition, geography, linguistic base, and economic viability. Seti-Mahakali and Bheri-Karnali states have been proposed based on their geographical appropriateness, while the rest-- Magarat, Tharuwan, Limbuwan, Kochila, and Madhesh – have been conceived on the basis of ethnicity. Within the Madhesh autonomous state, 3 sub-states-Mithila, Bhojpura and Awadh–have been proposed on a linguistic basis.

The CPN-Maoist won a largely unexpected victory in the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, securing 220 seats in the 601-member CA and becoming the largest party. The party’s traditional base is among the peasantry, the working class, and marginalized communities groups, but its success in the Constituent Assembly elections showed its strength in new areas, particularly amongst younger voters looking for an alternative to the dominant yet effete democratic parties of the 1990s, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML). Many CPN-Maoist leaders are young, and come from a more diverse background than their main competitors.

The credit for holding the Constituent Assembly elections goes mainly to the Maoists as they demanded the vote throughout the peace process. The party is distinguished for its excellent organization and communications structures and its notable discipline in pursuit of its goals. The party’s strength also comes from its army, and from a large and often-violent youth wing, the Young Communist League (YCL), that has been exerting strong control over Nepal since 2006 and has also been implicated in a range of incidents from extortion to attacks on persons and property.