UML-Maoist Center unification announcement at 4 pm today

KATHMANDU, May 17:After eight months of initial agreement on merger between CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center), the two ruling left parties are announcing unification Thursday afternoon, ending the uncertainty over the merger.

Preparations are almost over, and the scene has been all set. A meeting of the party unification coordination committee, held today morning at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, has scheduled 4 pm for the merger announcement.

“The unification will be announced at 4 pm in the afternoon at Rastriya Shaba Griha,” Foreign Affairs Minister and UML leader Pradeep Gyawali told Reporters Club.

The decision taken by the meeting will be approved by the UML’s central committee. Following this, the new Nepal Communist Party will be registered with the Election Commission today itself, which will be made public through a press conference.

“There is no reason to prolong the party unification and that the new party will be registered today itself,” said Prime Minister and UML Chair K P Sharma Oli at an event organized to mark the 25th Madan-Ashrit Memorial Day.

A meeting between chairs of both the parties—K P Sharma Oli (UML) and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ (Maoist Center)—on Wednesday morning agreed to seal the unification deal, and announce the merger on Thursday coinciding with the 25th death anniversary of UML leaders Madan Kumar Bhandari and Jibaraj Ashrit, who were killed when a jeep carrying both of them plunged into Trishuli river 25 years ago.

According to the agreement, the new unity party will be named ‘Nepal Communist Party’, the new party will be guided ideologically by the philosophy of Marxist–Leninist and on political line, People’s Democracy will be adopted and leadership of the new party will be shared alternatively.

The new party will have 441-member central committee (241 members from the UML and 200 from the Maoist Center).

Likewise, it will have a 43-member standing committee with 25 representatives from the UML and 18 from the Maoist Center. The party will have ‘Sun’ as its electoral symbol, the one the UML has been using for long.