In 1973 the original Communist Party of India CPI was split, with one group led by Sharma and another by Mahadev Mukherjee. Vinod Mishra initially belonged to Mukherjee's party, but he and the Burdwan Regional Committee broke with Mukherjee in September 1973. Mishra sought contact with the Sharma group, but the Burdwan Regional Committee was later divided and Mishra denounced the political line of Sharma. In 1974 Mishra came into contact with Subrata Dutta, a leader of armed struggle in the plain areas of Bihar. On 28 July 1974 a new party Central Committee was formed with Jauhar as General Secretary and Mishra and Swadesh Bhattacharya as members. The reorganized party became known as the 'anti-Lin Biao' group. The anti-Lin Biao group became known as the CPI Liberation. Mishra served as West Bengal secretary of the new party organization. Under Mishra's leadership new dalams were formed. In November 1975 Jauhar was killed in the midst of Lal Sena activities. Mishra became the new party General Secretary in a reorganized five-member Central Committee. Mishra organized a second party congress, held clandestinely in the rural areas of Gaya district in February 1976. The congress unanimously re-elected Mishra as General Secretary.
Reorientation and rectification
Mishra was the political architect of the process of re-orientation of CPI Liberation. By 1976 the party had adopted a position that armed struggle would be combined with building a broad anti-Congress democratic front movement. The process further elaborated through an internal rectification process initiated in late 1977. Party study circles and party schools were started from central to block level of the party structure. The theory of two line tactics started to develop. In 1981 party tried to unify the other splintered ML factions. The party organised a unity meet with 13 ML factions to form a unified leading core. But the initiative was a failure.
The IPF
In the early 1980s CPI Liberation began building an open non-party mass movement, the Indian People's Front. Nagbhushan Patnaik became the president of IPF. The construction of IPF, through which the underground party could develop links to other democratic forces on the basis of a popular, democratic and patriotic programme, was based on interventions by Mishra. However although Mishra broke with the dogmas of the early CPI, he never renounced Charu Majumdar's legacy. In the third party congress it was decided that IPF will participate in parliamentary elections. In 1989 IPF's Rameshwar Prasad won the loksabha seat from Ara. In 1990, IPF won 7 seats from Bihar Legislative Assembly. Special initiatives taken for restructuring the party and open up. IPF hold its first rally on 8 October 1990 in Delhi.
The ASDC
In 1985, the party launched People's democratic Front in Karbi Anglong district of Assam which won a seat in state assembly. In 1987 PDF was transformed to Autonomous State Demand Committee. A sustained mass movement by ASDC help it to sweep district council elections in 1989. In 1981, ASDC's Jayanta Rongpi became an MP in Parliament. In 1996, ASDC was able to send its five-member group in Assam assembly as MLA. In 1992, after the Fifth party congress, the party comes out in the open from its underground status. Mishra was re-elected General Secretary of the party at the sixth congress of CPI Liberation in Varanasi in October 1997.
Present
The Communist Party of India Liberation, led by Dipankar Bhattacharya is a surviving faction of the CPI.Liberation has established legal overground structures and participates in elections. In the Lok Sabhaelections in 1999 the party won 0.3% of the votes and one seat. In the 2004 elections the seat was lost, mainly due to a split within ASDC. As of 2016, the party has been able to send its representatives to the state legislative assemblies of Bihar and Jharkhand as well as the panchayats of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Punjab.
Publications
The English-language publication of the party is Liberation, and thus the party is called CPI Liberation. Apart from Liberation, the party publishes a central Hindi weekly organ, Samkaleen Lokyuddh. Some state party committees publish their own organs, like the weekly Ajker Deshabrati in West Bengal, Nabasphulinga in Tripura, Teeppori in Tamil Nadu, Telugu Liberation in Andhra Pradesh, Kannada Liberation in Karnataka, Samkali Lok Morcha in Punjab, etc.
Since the separation of Jharkhand from Bihar important places like Ranchi, Dhanbad, Giridih, Koderma, Jamtada and others have been field of work of the party. In Jharkhand the party is the representative of regional adivasis who have conflicts with corporates and government against improper land seizure without proper rehabilitation. The party also has conflicts with the local coal mafias.
Jharkhand Panchayat Election 2015
In Giridih district the party emerged as the single largest party and won 11 zila Parishad seats during the panchayat election of 2015.
The party contested in cooperation with state left parties like Marxist Coordination Centre, CPI, and CPI as an alternative to the BJP and INC led alliances. The party won one seat from Giridih district. The party got 1.5% of vote in the state. All the left parties together got 2.5% vote in the state.
Punjab
The party here represents the landless dalit labourers through the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha which is affiliated to AIALA. The Green revolution mechanised the agriculture since the rule of Indira Gandhi. But the landless remained land less.
The Malwa Uprising
In 2009 there was a land siege by the landless farmers in the Malwa region which includes Singrur, Mansa, Bhatinda under the leadership of the CPI Liberation. This was as a result of unprovided free land as was promised by the ruling parties as per Punjab Land Consolidation and Fragmentation act of 1961. The protesters struck a deal with the government to legally allot them lands as per provisions within three months. The government demanded immediate vacation of the sieged lands. The farmers did not agree which led to a government crackdown on May 21.
