Communism in Nepal traces its roots back to the pro-democracy movement of 1951, and the subsequent overthrow of the autocratic Rana regime and the establishment of democracy in Nepal. The communist movement in Nepal has split into factions multiple times and multiple factions have come together into a single fold at times as well. It has a history of getting banned from open political discourse; as well as multiple instances of embracing guerrilla insurgency, most notably, the Maoist insurgency in the 1990s and early 2000s that led to the Nepalese Civil War, claiming at least 17,000 lives. After the Maoists and other main political parties (communist and otherwise) formed a united coalition, launching a successful peaceful civil resistance against the dictatorial coup d'état by the monarchy, which resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and drafting of a new constitution affirming Nepal as a secular, federal, democratic republic striving towards democratic socialism, the two main communist parties of Nepal contested the first election according to the new constitution as a coalition, eventually leading to the unification of two parties with a strong majority in the federal parliament as well as six out of seven provinces of Nepal.