Maoist Center, Unified Socialist near party unification

KATHMANDU: The CPN (Maoist Center) and the CPN (Unified Socialist) have reached close to an agreement on party unification.

According to sources, the responsibility of finalizing the leadership has been entrusted to Maoist Center Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairperson Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The two parties have already agreed on ideology, policy and program of the merged party. The new party will be guided by Marxism-Leninism as its ideological foundation, while its working policy will be socialism with Nepali characteristics, according to leaders.

As part of the agreement, the Maoist Center will abandon Maoism, and the Unified Socialist will integrate the core values of “People’s Multiparty Democracy” within socialism, they added.

While the name of the unified party has yet to be decided, it is likely to be either Nepal Communist Party (Socialist) or CPN (Socialist).

A proposal has been put forward to make Dahal the Coordinator and Madhav Kumar Nepal the Co-coordinator of the new party. Efforts are also underway to include the CPN led by Netra Bikram Chand.

Sources say preparations are being made to announce the unification before the deadline for party registration set by the Election Commission.