Valley
UML, Maoist Centre form panel to prepare for Upper House poll
The first meeting of the Party Unity Coordination Committee of the left alliance on Tuesday formed a task force to make necessary preparations for the upcoming National Assembly election, finalising the Proportional Representation results of the House of Representatives, and formation of provincial governments.Tika R Pradhan
The first meeting of the Party Unity Coordination Committee of the left alliance on Tuesday formed a task force to make necessary preparations for the upcoming National Assembly election, finalising the Proportional Representation results of the House of Representatives, and formation of provincial governments.
The six-member task force is comprised of Subas Chandra Nembang, Shanker Pokhrel and Surendra Pandey from the CPN-UML and Ram Bahadur Thapa, Barshaman Pun and Matrika Yadav from the CPN (Maoist Centre).
However, the meeting failed to form panels to work on party unification as two top leaders KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal were yet to reach a power-sharing deal on both party unification and new government.
The two communist allies have expedited preparations for the merger before a new government is formed, according to leaders privy to the developments. Since the process to form a new government will begin only after a month, leaders from both the parties said they would work on the merger process.
The Election Commission has refused to allot proportional representation seats to the parties on the House of Representatives before the National Assembly is elected.
The meeting of coordination committee led by the two top leaders held at Oli’s residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur, expressed its commitment to ensuring party merger before forming the new government.
“We will attach top priority to the merger process but will also carry on with the tasks related to government formation,” senior UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal said after the meeting that lasted nearly three hours.
Since UML Chairman Oli leaves for Thailand for regular medical examination, the next meeting of the Party Unity Coordination Committee is expected to form two task forces for settling matters related to the unified party’s ideology and organisational structure.
“Forming task forces for merger was on the agenda but the meeting decided to form the panels at the next meeting after Chairman Oli returns from Bangkok,” Maoist Centre Chair Dahal’s secretariat stated.
The committee that includes Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, and Ishwor Pokhrel from the UML and Shrestha and Thapa from the Maoist Centre has agreed to form two panels to lay the groundwork for merger.
The two leaders had a one-to-one meeting for more than an hour on Sunday while the two parties held separate internal consultations on Monday. But the discussions failed to make headway with the two top leaders yet to reach a concrete deal on power sharing.