Indian politician and trade unionist
R.N. Upadhyaya was an Indian politician and trade unionist. He joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army in 1938.[1] In 1940 he became a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.[1] He participated in the August 1942 Quit India movement.[1] He was jailed for his role in the independence struggle, and was released in 1946. He joined the Communist Party of India in 1952.[1]
During the 1964 split in the Communist Party of India, he sided with the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1] When CPI(M) was subsequently divided, he belonged to the group that supported the Naxalbari uprising and was expelled from CPI(M) mid-1967.[2] He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).[1] He was a delegate, representing Uttar Pradesh, at the 1970 party congress of CPI(ML).[1] He took part in organizing the CPI(ML) Uttar Pradesh State Conference in Muzaffarnagar, at which Charu Majumdar participated.[1] Within he shared the positions of Satya Narayan Singh who opposed Majumdar's dominance over the party.[3]
Upadhyaya was an active trade unionist.[1] He led a strike of cigarette factory workers in Saharanpur in 1973.[1] Following the strike he was imprisoned for six months.[1] He worked with the trade union at Mansurpur Sugar Factory.[1] As CPI(ML) collapsed in the 1970s, Upadhyaya rejoined CPI.[1] The 1981 conference of the Uttar Pradesh Trade Union Council (of AITUC) elected Upadhyaya as one of its vice presidents.[4]
In 1997 he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, and became the Uttar Pradesh President of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions.[1][5]
Upadhyaya died on 18 November 2003 at PGI Hospital in Lucknow.[1]
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