Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Naya Shakti Nepal coordinator Baburam Bhattarai shared same stage during a book launching programme of deceased Maoist lawmaker Bhakti Pandey in the Capital on Monday.

The duo, who were once a long time political companion in Maoist party led by Dahal, were divided after Bhattarai severed his ties with then UCPN (Maoist) to launch his new party.

On the occasion, the duo, who appeared on the same stage after 14 months of coming apart, launched the book titled ‘Chacha’ and shared the nature of their relationship.

PM Dahal, also Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre), said, “The situation is forcing us to come together. Only we know how indispensible Prachanda is to Baburam and Baburam to Prachanda.”

“Baburam-ji simply quit the Maoist party. There were lot of issues to be discussed but he left,” said PM Dahal, adding that they should honestly come together.

Likewise, leader Bhattarai said that there is still a room for him joining the Maoist party in future, however, they should become of similar mind for that.

“I started Naya Shakti because of my differences in opinion with the Maoist party. If we are successful in thriving new ideas without forgoing the essence of dialectal materialism, we can discuss for unification in future,” said leader Bhattarai.

Leader Bhattarai had left the Maoist party in September last year.