Madan Kumar Bhandari (June 27, 1952 – 1993) was a Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

i politician and communist leader.

Bhandari was born in Taplejung

Taplejung

Taplejung is the headquarters of Taplejung District in the Mechi Zone of Nepal. It is located at 27°21'0N 87°40'0E with an altitude of 1441 metres ....

. He studied in Varanasi

Varanasi

-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 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

Pushpa Lal Shrestha

Pushpa Lal Shrestha was the founding general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal as well as the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal ....

. Around 1976 he left Pushpa Lal's Communist Party of Nepal

Communist Party of Nepal (Pushpa Lal)

Communist Party of Nepal , a communist splinter group led by Pushpa Lal Shestra. The party emerged in 1968, as Pushpa Lal organized a separate party congress in Gorakhpur, India...

 to launch the Mukti Morcha Samuha

Mukti Morcha Samuha

Mukti Morcha Samuha was an underground communist group in Nepal. MMS was formed in 1976 following a split from the Communist Party of Nepal of Pushpa Lal Shestra. MMS was led by student leader Madan Kumar Bhandari...

 ("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)

Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist)

Communist Party of Nepal , was an underground political party in Nepal. It was founded 1978 by the All Nepal Communist Revolutionary Coordination Committee . The founding congress was held December 26, 1978-January 1, 1979. The first general secretary of CPN was C.P...

 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)

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

The Communist Party of Nepal , also known as CPN-UML, CPN, is one of the largest communist parties in Nepal. It was created on January 6, 1991 through the unification of the Communist Party of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal...

 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.