Kathmandu, February 4:

The 17th central committee meeting of the CPN-UML is expected to discuss the strategy to be adopted for the constituent assembly election. The meeting is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

“The central committee meeting will concentrate on the assembly election,” said central committee member Surendra Pandey.

According to him, the main agenda of the meeting includes selection of candidates for the 601-member constituent assembly polls (240 seats to be contested on the first-past-the-post basis and 335 seats to be contested on the proportional system and the rest 26 to be nominated by the council of ministers). The party is also expected to finalise the date of its eighth national convention.

The meeting is also expected to finalise the party’s election manifesto, which, according to Pandey, is almost ready. A panel led by standing committee member Jhala Nath Khanal has been working on the manifesto. Khanal said his team had prepared the final draft of the manifesto and it will be made public once the central committee meeting approves it.

The agenda of the meeting would be whether to forge an electoral alliance with the Leftist forces, including the Maoists. “The issue of Left electoral alliance during the constituent assembly election may also figure in the meeting,” Pandey said. However, there are a large number of central committee members, including influential standing committee member KP Sharma Oli, who are against making any electoral alliance with the Maoists because of their behaviour and ideology.

Pandey said the meeting will discuss the date for the party’s eight national convention. The five-year tenure of the central committee has expired and the party needs to hold its convention within February.

But, given the assembly polls, it is highly unlikely that the party would be able to hold it well before the polls.