Kathmandu, February 1

The CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre are less likely to unify before formation of the new government, which will be formed after the National Assembly election slated for February 7.

A meeting of the Party Unification Coordination Committee led by  UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and CPN-MC Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal today failed to reach any conclusion on unification.

“Unification of the two parties may be announced only after the formation of the new government,” senior CPN-MC leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who attended the meeting, told THT.  “But the ideology and organisational structure of the unified party, including leaders’ roles and responsibilities, may be ready before formation of the government.”

According to sources, when Shrestha asked Oli and Dahal about the progress on unification, they told him to think about how to make it a reality.

According to Shrestha, the next PUCC meeting will form the task force to sort out unification issues. The meeting could not form a separate task force to narrow down differences between the two parties on ideological and organisational issues.

Oli and Dahal have not adequately discussed the two key issues after provincial and parliamentary elections, which were held on November 26 and December 7. UML and Maoist Centre had told their parties’ cadres before the election that the two parties would unify after the election. “The two parties cannot escape unification, as leaders of both the parties had pledged before their cadres that they would unify,” Shrestha said.

Senior CPN-MC leader Ram Bahadur Thapa yesterday told members of provincial assemblies at party headquarters that party unification would not happen before formation of the government.

The CPN-MC leaders have been saying publicly that unification will not happen if Dahal was not made chairman of the unified party.

According to UML leader Surendra Pandey, the meeting endorsed the task force’s report on chiefministers, provincial speakers, deputy speakers and provincial cabinet formation. The task force had recommended four chief ministers, four speakers and two deputy speakers for the UML and two chief ministers, two speakers and four deputy speakers for CPN-MC in six provinces where the left alliance has majority.

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