Kathmandu, October 13

Bijay Kumar Gachhadar-led Nepal Democratic Forum, which is a constituent of the six party task force formed to forge a democratic alliance, is also prepared to unify with the Nepali Congress.

Gachhadar was associated with the NC before he joined the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Nepal in 2008, a few days before the first Constituent Assembly elections.

NDF lawmaker Yogendra Chaudhari said his party’s merger with the NC was possible if the largest party showed magnanimity and accorded respectable position to party Chair Gachhadar. Sources said Gachhadar had demanded that he should be made Vice President of the party.

“We are ready to either merge with the NC or forge a democratic alliance with the NC,” Chaudhari said and added that if NDF’s merger did not take place then the party would try to contest the upcoming provincial and parliamentary polls as a constituent of the democratic alliance. “We need to manage the positions of our party leaders and cadres from top to bottom layers of the party structure. Once we work out a formula, merger with the NC will be easy,” Chaudhari said.

Chaudhari said CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli had also asked party Chair Gachhadar to join their left alliance, but Gachhadar said his party was a democratic force which could not be part of a left alliance.  “Our party chair has told Dahal and Oli that he might think of joining the alliance only if it changed its name as federal democratic alliance,” Chaudhari added.