Two top leaders of the left alliance have started intensive discussion to find common ground for leading the two communist parties towards merger.

After holding a three-hour long discussion at CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli’s residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur on Friday, Dahal met the UML leader for more than two-and-a-half hours on Saturday evening to discuss the issues.

However, since the top leaders have yet to find the basis for merger, informal discussion is likely to be held before the Party Unity Coordination Committee (PUCC) meets on Sunday afternoon.

“The two leaders are yet to find common ground on both organisational and ideological issues,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a member of the PUCC.

Leaders claimed that Oli and Dahal dwelt on the roles of the top leaders from the two parties and the ideology for the new party.

“During Friday’s meeting, the two leaders put forth their views on the major issues including their roles and party ideology,” said a Maoist leader, claiming that more deliberation was necessary to sort the issues concretely.

The Maoist Centre has demanded the unified party’s chair if the UML chooses the prime minister’s post while the latter has been reluctant to accept Dahal as a powerful chair of the new party.

At present, the Maoist Centre has made Maoism as its guiding principle while the UML follows the ‘People’s Multi-party Democracy’.

Dahal has interacted with key UML leaders with an aim to send a message across that he would be ready to remain as a central member for the sake of party unity while Oli met some Maoist Centre leaders including Shrestha on Friday.

The PUCC meeting was delayed in the belief that things would be easier if the two leaders agreed on the key issues—the modality for power-sharing, organisational readjustment and the ideological agenda.

Once the two leaders come up with agreements in concrete terms, the PUCC would draft the common documents by forming two separate task forces. Dahal told journalists after the meeting on Saturday that they had discussed the agenda for Sunday’s PUCC meeting: National Assembly election, report of the joint task force, and common documents for party merger.

The PUCC would form two task forces for finalising documents concerning organisational and ideological issues after the top leaders agree on the guidelines.

Meanwhile, prior to his meeting with Oli, Dahal had said that his party would not forgo all its ideological bases for the sake of party merger. Addressing a function at the party headquarters in Perisdanda, Dahal claimed on Saturday that the ideological debate had just begun with the UML.