Himal Press 
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (right) with Dr Baburam Bhattarai.
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepal Samajwadi Party (NSP) Chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai have been engaging in frequent meetings recently. According to NSP leaders, the discussions between the two leaders primarily focus on party unification.
A meeting of talks teams of the two parties held on Sunday suggested the two parties to form a unity coordination committee.
A Maoist Center leader said that Dahal has been urging Dr. Bhattarai to expedite the process of party unification. However, Dr. Bhattarai is seeking a written consensus for the transformation of the party. The leader said that Dr. Bhattarai wants the party to transform into an alternative force with a new ideology and working style post-merger.
“If you are attempting to bring individuals from the NSP and term it party unification, you are free to do so. But the current necessity is transformation. We cannot move forward by practicing old politics,” Dr Bhattarai told Dahal, according to the leader.
NSP’s other Chairman, Mahendra Raya Yadav, is for an immediate merger with the Maoist Center. Yadav, who was elected to the House of Representatives in last year’s general elections using the Maoist Center’s electoral symbol, currently serves as the Minister of Water Supply in Dahal’s cabinet. He has been telling party leaders that he feels awkward to identify himself as an NSP leader. “I was elected using the Maoist Center’s electoral symbol. I am the only one in NSP’s parliamentary party. It is becoming morally difficult for me to say I am an NSP leader,” Yadav often tells his close associates.
Ganga Narayan Shrestha, NSP’s co-chairman and head of the NSP’s talks team, is also for an immediate merger with the Maoist Center.
The Maoist Center’s talks team is led by its vice chairman Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
NSP is scheduled to hold its central committee meeting later this week. The central committee is expected to make a decision on whether to pursue a merger with the Maoist Center immediately.
