Biratnagar, October 25

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal today compared himself with late leader Madan Bhandari.

Speaking at a programme organised to exchange greetings on the occasion of Deepawali and Chhath by NCP Morang in Biratnagar, Dahal held that both he and Bhandari had  evolved with similar pedigree.

He had led Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) while Bhandari had led the Communist Party of Marxist-Leninist(ML), Dahal said. Dahal stated that Bhandari was murdered when he and Bhandari were preparing to unite the then CPN-ML and CPN-M after the restoration of democracy.

Stating that CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-UML had merged to form a new party due to similar ideology, Dahal urged the party rank and file to fathom the political sentiment of Bhandari.

“Nepal Communist Party came into being not because we wished,” Dahal said, adding, “The merger of the two parties to form NCP is an outcome of ideological deliberations, series of communist breakaways, losses and pain of around 60 years.”

Dahal recalled how Nepal Communist Party Marxist-Leninist had emerged from Jhapa rebellion of 1969. “The party had helped establish Madan Bhandari as a charismatic leader,” he stated. Dahal claimed that he was neither a radical Maoist nor a radical Mashal.

“You might have misunderstood me as a radical Mashal or radical Maoist. Conversely, I am like Madan Bhandari who believed in constant evolution,” Dahal told party cadres and the public. He informed that he had taken the party membership of Pushpalal Group in 1969. According to Dahal, he had quit Pushpalal Group in 1974 to join the group led by Mohan Bikram Singh.

“I was promoted to the central committee eight years later. When late Bhandari was the general secretary of Marxist-Leninist Party just before the first people’s movement, I was the general secretary of the party,” Dahal.