UML-Maoist Centre Unification: Top panel to act upon merger documents
The taskforce of the left alliance headed by senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has finalised the political document for unification between the UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre). The 42-page paper will guide the new party after merger until the unity convention is held.
The taskforce of the left alliance headed by senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has finalised the political document for unification between the UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre). The 42-page paper will guide the new party after merger until the unity convention is held.
The paper has drawn a strategic line of peacefully achieving socialism while Marxism-Leninism would be the new party’s guiding principle. Leaders said the document would be presented to the Party Unification Coordination Committee, which is likely to meet on Monday.
The two parties had agreed to document only those issues that have been resolved and to put all the contentious issues on hold until the unity convention.
The document analyses national and international communist movements besides recognising multi-polar power centres in the world.
According to taskforce member Devendra Poudel, the paper credits both the People’s War waged by the Maoists and various movements of political parties including the UML for the recent political changes.
There was a dispute among leaders from both parties on using the term People’s War in the unified party’s statute as UML leaders wanted to use “people’s revolution” claiming that it would encompass “People’s War” as well.
Subas Nembang, a member of the taskforce, said leader Nepal had been tasked with making necessary changes to the report finalised by the panel. Maoist Centre leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha and UML leader Raghuji Panta had given it the finishing touches. The report would be handed over to the Party Unification Coordination Committee (PUCC) in a meeting, Nembang said.
Taskforce member Dev Gurung said issues including Maoism, People’s Democracy of the Twenty-first Century and People’s Multi-party Democracy would be discussed at the unity conference to be held within the next couple of years.
Another taskforce led by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has also prepared its report but there has been no agreement on the proportion of members to be inducted from both the parties in the unified entity and its election symbol.
UML leaders wanted the ratio of representation to be determined by the taskforce while Maoist leaders have pressed for the PUCC to finalise it. The panel has decided to submit the report saying that the two issues were yet to be agreed upon.
While Maoist leaders want equal basis for formation of unified committees, UML leaders say that should depend on the size of the two parties after the federal and provincial elections.
Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade.
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