CPN-UML Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai has said that the proposed unification between the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) cannot be termed “surrender”.

The statement comes at a time when some Maoist leaders have argued that the plan of merging with the UML by abandoning their core principles and structures would be tantamount to surrendering the revolutionary party.

Two parties would be dissolved to make one, with respect for each other’s existence and values, Bhattarai said.

Talking to journalists in Dharan on Tuesday, Bhattarai said party unification and government formation would go side by side. An official announcement of merger would come after streamlining the party policy, ideology and organisational structure.

On the prickly issue of leadership of the new force, the UML secretary said it would be resolved soon after unification of the parties. The publicity department chief of the party claimed that the Madhes-based parties would also be taken on board the new government.

Bhattarai accused the incumbent government led by the Nepali Congress of clinging on to power under various pretexts. The caretaker government has made a mockery of democratic norms, he charged. “There are questions over the intent of the Election Commission and the prime minister,” he remarked, referring to the delaying of House of Representatives election results citing the issue of representation of women in the National Assembly and Prime Minister M Deuba refusing to resign.

Bhattarai reiterated his party’s position that the appointments and wrong decisions made by the caretakerDeuba government would be scrapped by the incoming government of the left alliance.