Janata Samajbadi registers at Election Commission

KATHMANDU, June 7: One and half months after Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal announced a surprise midnight merger, the new party Janata Samajbadi has registered at the Election Commission on Sunday.

The Samajbadi had neared an unfortunate split when it almost became a victim of the controversial ordinance related to Political Parties introduced by Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on April 20.

Following approval of the ordinance, which paved a party to split with 40 percent support from only either the party central committee or parliamentary party, a lot of drama came to play when Samajbadi lawmaker Dr. Surendra Yadav was “forcefully” brought to Kathmandu by ruling Nepal Communist Party lawmakers Mahesh Basnet and Kishan Shrestha and former Inspector General of Police Sarbendra Khanal and “held” in a hotel while a conspiracy to split Yadav’s party cooked.

But Samajbadi eclipsed “Oli’s dirty schemes” announcing a surprise merger with RJPN at midnight and named the new party as Janata Samajbadi Party.

The party splitting ordinance along with another ordinance related to Constitutional Council, which were also pushed together despite objection from the ruling party Secretariat, were withdrawn five days later.

The Janata Samajbadi leaders had reached the Election Commission next day to register the party but the registration process could not move forward since the it was yet to finish the leadership model.

The new party has named Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Upendra Yadav and Mahantha Thakur as the chairs. Yadav and Thakur will hold the equal executive powers.

Dr Bhattarai’s Naya Sakti had merged with Federal Socialist Forum Nepal to form Samajbadi in May last year.