KATHMANDU, JANUARY 8
The Nepal Samajbadi Party led by Baburam Bhattarai is all set to form a negotiation committee to unite with CPN-Maoist Centre.
The meeting of the political committee of the Nepal Samajbadi Party started today at the party central office. In the meeting, party chair Baburam Bhattarai submitted a political report titled 'Socialist Polarisation Today's Need'.
NSP Co-chairman Ganga Narayan Shrestha informed that discussion had started on Bhattarai's political report.
Talking to mediapersons, Bhattarai said the meeting would form a political committee to unite the party with the CPN-Maoist Centre. He clarified that the committee would be empowered to discuss and try to achieve unity with other parties, including the Maoist Centre.
The political report submitted by Bhattarai is divided into five sections - the beginning, seven years of party formation, brief review of federal and provincial elections 2022, socialist polarisation today's need and future action plans.
Political work, organisational work, propaganda work and movement and campaign work plan are mentioned in the report under the upcoming action plan. Co-chair Shrestha informed that the meeting would last till tomorrow.
NSP leaders including Bhattarai, Co-chair Ganga Narayan Shrestha, among others met Maoist Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in Baluwatar yesterday and talked about party unification.
According to Co-chair Shrestha, the leaders also discussed the vote of confidence sought by the prime minister tomorrow, apart from unification.
The party led by Bhattarai, who quit the Maoist Centre seven years ago, has long been preparing for unification with the CPN-MC. Its candidates had contested the recent federal and provincial elections with the election symbol of the Maoist Centre, and the candidates for the Proportional Representation electoral system were included in the closed list of the Maoist Centre. In the wake of poor performance in the November 20 federal and provincial polls and the rise of new forces after the elections, the CPN-Maoist Centre seems to have felt the need to work hard to keep itself relevant. The party has decided to go for a broader left unity to bolster its chances.
The Maoist Centre has already formed a team under Vice-chairman Krishna Bahadur Mahara to unite leftists. The team includes Deputy General Secretary Dev Gurung and deputy general secretaries Giriraj Mani Pokharel, Janardan Sharma, and Shakti Basnet to hold dialogue for left unity. Nepal Samajwadi Party is expected to announce its team for dialogue shortly.
Prior to forging unity with the CPN- Maoist Centre and NSP, the CPN (US) decided to carry out the unity process by negotiating and communicating with other parties and groups from Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal.
Deputy General Secretary of the CPN (US) Jagannath Khatiwada said, "We are trying to unite all those on the left and move forward under our leadership."
He said he would hold discussions not only with the JSP-N but also with all other parties, including the CPN-UML, Maoists and other left wing people and small groups.
"It can be individuals or small groups, but we will move in this direction," said Khatiwada. Earlier, the CPN-UML also held discussions with other leaders, including left wing leader Ghanshyam Bhusal. Despite discussions with Bhusal, he has not decided whether to join Nepal Samajwadi Party.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
