After the Maoist leaders suddenly went underground last month, their organisational expansion into the east of the country became clear. In the presence of Maoist chief Prachanda and leader Baburam Bhattarai, the Limbuwan Liberation Front and Kirat Workers' Party reorganised the Kirat National Front during the two communal parties' first unity convention held between 16-18 July. Reports say both Prachanda and Bhattarai rode horses to reach Yangnamma in Panchthar district.

Fifty-nine-year-old Bhaktaraj Kandangwa (pic below), a member of the Maoist Revolutionary People's Council and chief of the people's government of Tehrathum, was elected the new chairman of the Kirat National Front (KNF). A past merger between the Limbuwan Study Forum and Khumbuwan Liberation Front brought the KNF into being. That Maoist-mediated unity did not last. Khumbuwan Front's Gopal Khambu disassociated himself from the new party, and subsequently the Maoists. His splinter group called themselves the Kirat Workers' Party.

On 23 July, the reorganised Kirat National Front declared its comeback and made public its 29-member new committee in Dharan, which did not include Gopal Khambu. Insiders say he has been made a politburo member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Khambu is also part of the revolutionary people's council formed under Baburam Bhattarai.

Kandangwa stressed reunification was necessary to fight discrimination. Referring to the demands for regional self-governance by the Kirats of the east, he added that even the Maoists have accepted this fact. He also believes that his party and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) need each other at present.

The Maoists have tried to expand their presence in the east by bringing the two parties that are demanding the separate sovereign states of Khumbuwan and Limbuwan under its umbrella. They, in turn, are trying to use the Maoist banner to achieve their goals. "Our demand is not related to class, it is about community," says Kandangwa. "If they betray us, we won't hesitate to take up arms against them." How long the Maoist rebels, who believe in class struggle, go along with these community-centric organisations, remains to be seen.