Nepal's two left parties merge to become largest communist party

Nepal's ruling CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre today merged to form the Nepal Communist Party, the country's largest Left party, eight months after they initially agreed on the unification.

A formal announcement was made after the Left alliance endorsed the Party Unification Coordination Committee's (PUCC) decision to unify the party.

The CPN-UML, led by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and the CPN-Maoist Centre, led by former premier Prachanda, had in December last year secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the provincial and parliamentary polls, which many thought would bring the much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

Earlier, Oli held a joint meeting of the unified party at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar.

 

At the meeting, central members of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) took the oath of office and secrecy, following which Oli and Prachanda administered the oath of office and secrecy to each other.

As per the terms of agreement of the unification of the two parties, Oli and Dahal will lead the unified party and a nine-member secretariat, and enjoy equal power.

It was also decided to transfer all the properties registered in the name of CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre to the new party.

After the meeting, top leaders went to the Election Commission to inform it about the unification of the two parties into a new party, the Nepal Communist Party and as it new election symbol as "sun", which was the election symbol of the CPN-UML, according to a senior leader of the CPN-Maoist Centre, Sunil Manandhar.

Following the party's registration, a meeting of joint central committee members was organised.

"After the merger the CPN-UML led government will enjoy two third majority in the parliament," he said, adding that the new party will be guided by the philosophy of MarxistLeninist and on political line.

The two left parties have agreed to share central committee members among themselves in the proportion of 55 (UML) - 45 (Maoist-Centre) basis.

The new party will have 441-member central committee which include, 241 members from the UML and 200 from the Maoist Centre. Likewise, it will have a 43-member standing committee with 25 representatives from the UML and 18 from the Maoist Centre.