KATHMANDU, Oct 13: The Naya Shakti Party Nepal has decided to involve in the coming elections of the House of Representatives and of State Assemblies with its own election symbol- ‘left eye.’

The extended meeting of the federal secretariat of the party said in its decision Friday that as the CPN-UML and Maoist Centre in the leftist alliance have acted against the spirit of alliance, the Naya Shakti Party Nepal will go for election with its own election symbol ‘eye’.

Similarly, the party decided that it would forge electoral alliance with all political parties and people except those who deny republic, federalism, secularism, and inclusiveness.

It has kept intact its earlier decision of fielding party coordinator Dr Baburam Bhattarai from constituency no 2 of Gorkha, Krishna Kumar Chaudhary of Kailali-3, Dan Bahadur Chaudhary from Kapilvastu-1 and Prem Tamang from Rasuwa and Madan Rai from Khotang. RSS

KATHMANDU, Oct 4: The ruling party Nepali Congress has termed the alliance among the leftist parties a threat to democracy.

In a dramatic turn of events, the three leftist parties, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and Naya Shakti Party formally announced the electoral alliance and unity process on Tuesday.

UML Chair KP Oli, MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Naya Shakti Coordinator Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai inked a six-point deal Tuesday on forging an electoral alliance, forming committees and task-forces to finalize the unification, preparing a joint manifesto for upcoming elections, preparing a party statute and other documents, and not trading blame in the transitional period, among other things.

The party also formed a joint committee led by Oli and Dahal in order to coordinate the unification process.

The unification and electoral announcement just a month before the parliamentary and province assembly elections has brought a new wave in the Nepalese politics.

The ruling party Nepali Congress described the electoral alliance among the communist parties on the eve of elections as an ‘unnatural and undemocratic step.’ Leader Nidhi said that the decision of the ruling partner MC was a big historical mistake. Leader Nidhi even claimed that the unification may even affect the election.

NC leader Chandra Bhandari argued that the unification among the leftist parties would be a threat to democracy.

NC leader Dr Ram Saran Mahat also backed Bhandari and termed the unification process as a game to end the democracy and its achievements.

Although the leftist leaders have expedited the unification talks, even some communist leaders have criticized the efforts as unification among the opportunists.

“It’s an unnatural unification process,” said Mohan Baidhya while talking to Rishi Dhamala adding, “It’s the unification of opportunists.”

“The Maoist Center is totally abandoning its revolutionary path,” he added.

“Polarization among the revolutionary forces is the today’s current need,” he further added, “Revolutionary polarization should be expedited now.”

Another leftist leader Mohan Bikram Singh welcomed the merger call and described it as a positive step.

There has been a huge political impasse in Nepalese communist movement whether which party is leftist or non-leftist; or communist or non-communist. It is a matter of a long political discussion- which needs analysis from various political angles.

KATHMANDU, Aug 2: Even though Dr Baburam Bhattarai-led Naya Shakti Party, Nepal  (NSPN) and Upendra Yadav-led Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) were on the verge of unification, the process could not materialize. FSF was supposed to make a formal decision regarding the merger at the meetings to be held on July 26, 27 and 28; instead, Dr Bhattarai ended the merger process stating that the parties had rivaled differences on various issues including understanding on federalism, political ideology and finalizing the name of the unified party.

On this context, here is an excerpt of the interview between senior journalist Rishi Dhamala and FSF Chairman Upendra Yadav.

Why did the unification between Naya Shakti and Federal Socialist Forum fail?

Efforts from both sides were made. But circumstances were not matured enough. Therefore, the merger process could not materialize.

Is it because of the differences in party policy and leadership between you and Dr Bhattarai?

Yes, It is. Some differences between parties could not make headway in the unification talks.

It has been reported that the merger process failed since you refused to hand over leadership to Bhattarai. Is it true?

Reports that surfaced on media are different thing. The truth is unification talks could not progress toward a decisive conclusion. So far finalizing the leadership is concerned, there have been practices of joint leadership. Besides, several other issues were yet to be settled.

Why did the unification process fail then?

Differences in party policies, political ideology, leadership management, organizational structure between the two parties could not make headway in the merger talks. Efforts from both sides were made, but we could not reach conclusion.

Isn’t there any chance of merger?

No. Not at the current circumstances– but discussions on merging could be carried out in the future.

Is there any possibility of FSF’s unification with any other parties on the eve of the third round of local level election?

Right away? Probably not.