Sahana Pradhan was the chair of the party and Bam Dev Gautam the general secretary.

Gautam and Pradhan advocated a tactical alliance with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, which the CPN (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal opposed.

The CPN (ML) described the split in the following wordings in the manifesto: "[The] CPN-ML was born as a result of revolt by revolutionary and patriotic force against national capitalist, and liquidationist policies and programmes of the CPN-UML.

From September to December that year, the CPN (ML) took part in the government led by Girija Prasad Koirala.

In the 1999 parliamentary elections, the CPN (ML) got 6.4% of the votes nationwide, but failed to win a single seat.