Two recently formed political parties Ujjwal Thapa-led Bibeksheel Nepali and Rabindra Mishra-led Sajha Party have announced their unification on Wednesday.

The announcement of unification was made amid a press conference held at New Baneshwor-based Indreni Party palace at 1:30pm today.

The unified party has been named Bibeksheel Sajha Party and has opted for Sajha Party's election symbol— a balance.

The two parties had hogged quite a good amount of media limelight during the first phase of local elections held on May 14 after they fielded their candidates for the mayoral post in Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Sajha Party’s Kishore Thapa and Bibeksheel’s Ranju Darshana were fresh faces in Kathmandu’s mayoral race, with the former securing 18,492 votes and the latter garnering 23,439 votes. Though UML won the mayoral race leaving NC’s candidate behind, Thapa and Darshana remained to be the talk of the town for quite some time.

Bibeksheel, led by Ujwal Thapa, was founded around five years ago with an aim to “change the country’s politics” which it says has failed to give a way out to the country’s pressing problems. It officially made its foray into politics in 2014 with “pragmatism, reformism and progressivism” as its ideology. In the last few years, the party’s presence in social movements has been significant.

Sajha Party, on the other hand, was formed months before the local elections. BBC journalist Rabindra Mishra’s decision to quit his lucrative job to take a plunge into politics also had become media headlines. Sajha aims “to clean up the dirt in Nepali politics” and strives for a welfare state on the back of what it calls STEM—system, transparency, integrity and meritocracy.

Leaders from both sides have agreed to pursue inclusive democracy, welfare state and economy as the new party’s socio-political agendas and will follow the “collective leadership” formula.

The unified party, according to a senior leader, will have a 34-member central committee—17 from Sajha and as many from Bibeksheel, and Mishra will preside over party meetings.

The unified party plans to contest the thirds phase of local elections in Province 2 on September 18.

While Bibeksheel was registered with the Election Commission before the first phase of elections, Sajha Party was registered 10 day ago.