KATHMANDU: On the occasion of the establishment day of Nepal Communist Party, the top leaders of CPN-UML and CPN Maoist Centre would be giving a message of early unification between the two parties, on Sunday.

Although the two parties had made efforts to be unified on April 22, it could not materialise, and therefore the top leaders of both parties have decided to give a message through a joint programme that the party unification would happen soon.

Both chairpersons of the UML and CPN MC would address a programme organised by the party unification coordination committee at Rastriya Sabha Griha in the Capital.

Secretary at UML Central Office Krishna Gopal Shrestha said, "The unification process is not terminated, it is unavoidable. It is just delayed for some time."

The process of unification between the two large communist parties was initiated before the elections. Common manifesto focusing on stable government, good governance and development was prepared by them. The parties argued that the elections approved their unity mandate.

The top leaders — UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and CPN MC Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal — were assigned the responsibility of finalising the interim statute and interim political report prepared by coordinator of taskforce on organisation Madhav Kumar Nepal and coordinator of taskforce on ideological report Ram Bahadur Thapa.

The top leaders, however, have continued discussion regarding unification on a daily basis. They have been suggested to announce the unification on May 1, on the occasion of International Labour Day.

MC leader Dinanath Sharma said, "Both chairpersons have assured the unification within Baisakh. There is no point in the parties backtracking from unification now."

The issues to be agreed upon before the unification are organisation ratio, analysis of people's war, forthcoming general convention and sharing of leadership.

Nepal Communist Party was established on April 22, 1949 under the leadership of Pushpa Lal against the backdrop of movement against Rana Regime. The founders of the party were Niranjan Baidya, Narabahadur Karmacharya, Narayan Bilas Joshi and Moti Devi Shrestha.

Since then, with various mergers and splits, there have been numerous communist parties where the UML and CPN MC are dominating the national communist front running their coalition government.