The dispute over name between the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the Rishiram Kattel-led Nepal Communist Party has landed in the court of Election Commission (EC) after they failed to resolve it mutually on Wednesday.

Representatives from the ruling party and the Kattel’s Nepal Communist Party failed to resolve the dispute as both sides were adamant on not making any alteration to their respective party names. The EC had registered the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) in 2018 while also accepting the acronym as the part of the party name, even though the Kattel led party had been registered with the EC since July 2013. Kattel’s party had also contested the second Constituent Assembly elections, but could not win a single seat in neither assembly.

The Oli-led CPN-UML and the Dahal-led CPN (Maoist Centre) had merged in May 2018 to become the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The EC had decided to register the newly established party on the first week of June. The Kattel party had filed a petition at the commission, claiming that it should have the right to retain its name with NCP as acronym, which has called into question the EC’s decision to register the ruling party as Nepal Communist Party.

While Krishna Hari Bhatta of the Kattel-led party has warned that they would move the Supreme Court if the EC does not correct its decision, Mukti Pradhan of the ruling NCP claims the party has been registered as per the law. 

“The ball is now in the commission’s court as both the parties failed to resolve the dispute mutually,” Joint Secretary at the EC Deepak Subedi told the Post. “The commission is likely to make a call on the matter in its meeting on Thursday.”

Before asking the parties to take a call mutually, the issue was discussed in the presence of representatives from both the parties, Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav and Election Commissioners Ila Sharma, Narendra Dahal and Ishwari Prasad Paudel. Other EC Commissioner Sudhir Kumar Shah, who was absent on Wednesday, is set to miss out on Thursday’s meeting as he is on leave till Saturday. 

“We are unsure if he will make it to the meeting tomorrow. Unavailability of a commissioner, however, won’t affect the decision making process,” Subedi said, adding that the meeting of the commissioners will reach a decision that needs to be complied by both the political parties. “The parties will get 35 days to comply with the EC’s decision,” he said.