A new alliance of left leaning political parties is in the offing. The Socialist Front’s basic objective will be to establish ‘scientific socialism for the country’s overall transformation’. But with leaders claiming the new front will lead to a radical national transformation, the question is: can they deliver?

According to former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai, who chairs the Nepal Samajbadi Party, the new front is not a merger of like-minded leftist forces. “It is just a front for now and those who agree that a socialist movement is needed for the country’s rapid transformation will come on board,” Bhattarai told the Post.

At least five parties will join the new front whose basic commitment will be to federalism, democracy, republicanism, inclusion, and secularism—the five basic key features of the Constitution of Nepal, said party leaders involved in the negotiations.

“There are several models of socialism but we will develop our own to transform the country politically, economically and socially. It is not a regressive or a rightist force,” said the former prime minister. “The democratic, leftist, progressive and socialist parties and forces can join the front but we are not merging the parties. But, in due course, like-minded forces can even merge.”

To start with, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party, and the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand will form the front, according to party leaders. The front’s concept paper was also prepared but its announcement is getting delayed as the parties concerned need to officially decide to join the front. On Friday, a secretariat meeting of the CPN (Unified Socialist) decided to do so.

But the country’s biggest leftist party, the CPN-UML, will not be part of the new front. “We have not discussed incorporating the UML in the new front for various reasons,” said Unified Socialist spokesperson Jagannath Khatiwada.

“We need to wait and see what the UML does. The objective of the new front would be to bring all leftist forces together in order to advocate socialism, establish the foundation of a socialist economy and make the government effective.”

With the dissolution of the Nepal Communist Party, which was considered to be the most powerful communist force in Nepal’s history, in early 2021, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was harping on the idea of forming the socialist centre. The new front is likely to have a total of 54 lawmakers in the lower house.

Bhattarai said the new front will not seek marginal changes in the left or the socialist movement in the country, suggesting that it will go for a major overhaul of national politics. “The new front will oppose authoritarianism and vouch for progressive and democratic principles. Its goal is to set up no less than a Nepali model of socialism,” said Bhattarai.

The Maoist Centre, the Unified Socialist and the Janata Samajbadi had formed a panel, tasking it with preparing a manifesto which will be unveiled during the front’s announcement.

“Through the socialist front, we will take the initiative to revive the Nepal Communist Party,” Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has previously said.

As agreed, the leadership of the new front will rotate among the top leaders and its structure will go down to the local level. The new entity will have a separate secretariat, a member of the task force said.

“The idea of forming a new front is not bad, but they should learn from the failures of similar initiatives in the past,” said Professor Krishna Pokhrel.

He believes that so long as KP Sharma Oli leads the party, the UML will not join the front.

“The socialist front will have to make a clear distinction between the parties and the front to avoid duplication of work. As we are not going to elections soon, we will have to wait and see how the front fares in the next few years,” Pokhrel added.