The CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) will have an equal number of members in the unified party committee, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has claimed.

The former prime minister on Monday said the Communist Party of Nepal would have a 50-50 share from both the parties. The two parties entered into an electoral alliance before the federal and provincial elections held in November-December last year. But the poll results altered the ratio to 70:30 with the UML emerging as the largest party.

Addressing a political training for Maoist student leaders at Sanothimi in Bhaktapur on Monday, Dahal said media reports saying that the Maoist Centre would have a smaller share in the unified party were baseless.

“We won’t go for unification with even a single member less than the UML’s,” All Nepal National Independent Students Union Spokesperson Surendra Basnet quoted Dahal as saying.

Two task forces of the Party Unification Coordination Committee have expedited works to finalise their reports at the earliest as the PUCC is geared up for announcement of the planned merger between the two left allies before Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visit to India slated to take place on April 6-8.

However, Chairman Dahal told the students that the merger would not be announced in haste without finalising all the major issues. Addressing the same group, Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha on Sunday said the two parties were working to announce the merger possibly on April 2 or 3.

The task forces have expedited meetings to give finishing touches to their reports. The team led by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa is preparing to finalise its report within a few days.

The statute would be made complete at a full meeting of the task force before it is submitted to the PUCC, most probably by Thursday. A meeting of the Madhav Nepal-led task force on Sunday decided to finalise the political document on Wednesday as discussions on issues have been over.

“We’ll submit the report to the PUCC after finalising it on March 28,” said task force member Subas Nembang. Leaders claimed that the central committee of the unified party would have 300 to 350 members while the politburo would be 100-strong. The standing committee may have around 35 members. Provincial and district

committees of the new party are expected to be larger after the merger. Members of the task force claimed that the provincial committees would have around 200 members while the district committees would be limited to 250-member.

The Maoist Centre has scheduled its secretariat meeting for Thursday to fix the sizes of its undefined committees. After merger with various fringe parties, the party has around 4,000 members in its National Convention Organising Committee.

The party headquarters has 35 members while the secretariat has 99 members. As the two parties prepare to announce unification soon, the Maoist Centre is pressed to make its party committees concrete.