The CPN had been ravaged by internal conflicts due to the Sino-Soviet split and differences of how to relate to political changes in the country.
[2] In 1971, a group of CPN leaders (Manmohan Adhikari, Shambhu Ram, and Mohan Bikram Singh) were released from jail.
[citation needed] The Amatya-led party was reduced to become one of many clandestine communist factions in Nepal, and it was readily outgrown by several of its splinter groups.
The party was generally identified as part of the pro-Soviet Union stream within the Nepalese communist movement, although it maintained some independence towards Moscow.
[citation needed] In 1989, the party took part in the formation of the United Left Front, to struggle against the autocratic regime.
However, that unity turned short-lived, as Tulsi Lal Amatya broke away from the CPN (United) and reconstituted his own party.