Kathmandu, June 23

Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal today assured leaders of the erstwhile CPN-Maoist Centre that the NCP would move forward as per the agreement signed with the then CPN-UML during the party’s unification process in May 2018.

A day after the NCP Central Secretariat meeting concluded without any result, Dahal called his aides to his Lalitpur residence to discuss the party’s merger. During discussion, Dahal said the party would follow the agreement signed earlier.

The agreement’s provision states that the NCP’s general convention will take the final call on the party’s ideology. Till then Marxism-Leninism will be the ideological stand of the unified party, the agreement reads.

Even the political document drafted under senior NCP leader Madhav Kumar Nepal didn’t mention any ideology — UML’s ‘people’s multi-party democracy’ or Maoist Centre’s ‘21st century people’s democracy’. The document was handed over to the two co-chairs after endorsement by the standing committee.

NCP General Secretary Bishnu Poudel yesterday said the two co-chairs would edit and send the approved document for publication and its release within a few days.

Ideological tension emerged after NCP leaders representing the then CPN-UML pressured Oli to carry ‘people’s multi-party democracy’ which was introduced by Madan Bhandari in the party’s political document.

A couple of months ago, deputy prime minister and member of the Central Secretariat Ishwor Pokharel publicly said the new party should carry ‘people’s multi-party democracy’ as well. Pokharel’s statement had generated ideological debate in the party. It also provoked Dahal to reply that there should not be any ideology such as ‘people’s multi-party democracy’ or ‘21st century people’s democracy’. Dahal also came up with same statement during today’s meeting.

Most leaders present at today’s meeting said there should be no problem with the agreement reached during unification. A source said some leaders had asked whether Oli was planning to break the agreement. Later, Dahal assured them that both (himself and Oli) were positive about implementing the agreement.