Founded in 1979, the party was built upon the aim of establishing a separate hill-state to combat administrative neglect and ensure sustainable development with respect to the sensitive ecology of the Himalayan region.

The party was formed under the leadership of some of the major political forces within the region and aimed at promoting unified activism to struggle for a separate state composed of the hill districts of Uttar Pradesh.

However, in the first-ever state assembly elections in 2002, the party won only four out of 70 seats and was outmaneuvered by the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, both despite being latecomers to the Uttarakhand statehood movement, succeeded in capturing its momentum for electoral gain and formed governments in the state.

Other personalities include Indramani Badoni, Devi Datt Pant, Bipin Chandra Tripathi and Diwakar Bhatt who were among the founding members and long time agitators for the Uttarakhand statehood movement.

Pritam Singh Panwar was the only winning candidate of the party in the 2012 Assembly election, who ran under the UKD(P) banner.

The party has embraced a number of causes of concern to the diversity of people living in Uttarakhand, defining the Uttarakhandi identity in broad and inclusive terms.