• The Party Unification Coordination Committee to meet on Tuesday and work on political ideology

Kathmandu January 7

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal held talks today and agreed to intensify their efforts to unify their two parties.

Dahal, who met Oli at the latter’s residence in Bhaktapur, told mediapersons after the meeting that   the Party Unification Coordination Committee would meet on Tuesday and form teams to work on the unified party’s structures and political ideology. He said they agreed to conclude the unification process within a few days.

Dahal said they also agreed to hold meetings of their respective parties tomorrow.

Oli’s personal aide Chetan Adhikari told THT that both leaders discussed National Assembly election, provincial government formation and unification of the two parties.

The UML has called its standing committee meeting tomorrow.

Earlier, Dahal reached Oli’s residence after returning from his home district of Chitwan. Dahal had to travel by road, as flights were disrupted due to bad weather. Oli is likely to fly to Bangkok for a routine health check-up on Wednesday.

Dahal and Oli were supposed to meet last week but their meeting could not take place due to Oli’s poor health.

Left alliance leaders have said that the party unification process will be concluded on the basis of seven-point agreement reached on October 3. After that agreement the UML and the CPN-MC contested provincial and parliamentary elections and fielded candidates on a 60:40 ratio.

The CPN-MC has already started collecting names of its leaders across the country for unification with CPN-UML.

A task force formed under Ram Bahadur Thapa by the party secretariat has been collecting names of leaders for the unified party’s committees and working on the role of leaders and cadres at different levels of the party’s structure. The UML has well-documented lists of members across the country but the CPN-MC does not have such a list.

The Party Unification Coordination Committee meeting is likely to be held tomorrow. According to task force member Matrika Yadav, at least secretariat and politburo members will remain intact in the unified party.

“After we finalise the names, the same have to be endorsed by the secretariat,” Yadav told THT. “Some of the leaders who joined the parties recently, might not get a chance to be in the higher committees of the unified party.”  The task force will complete its task within a week.

Meanwhile, CPN-MC leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha met President Bidhya Devi Bhandari today while Dahal was meeting Oli at the latter’s residence.