There is some uncertainty about announcement of unification of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) due to disagreement over a few issues despite Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli's desire to conclude unification before his India visit.
There is dispute on inclusion of the term 'people's war' and the election symbol in the task force formed for taking decision on the interim statute of the unified party. UML member in the task force Bedu Ram Bhusal told Setopati that the issues of election symbol and whether to keep the term 'people's war' in the preamble of the statute have yet to be agreed.
Another UML leader Surendra Pandey said Ishwore Pokharel of UML and Ram Bahadur Thapa of Maoist Center, both members of the task force like Pandey, have been authorized to forge consensus on the issues.
PM Oli had proposed with Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to conclude unification process before his India visit planned for the second week of April. It is not certain now whether unification will be possible before Oli's India visit after the dispute in the task force.
The task force has reached an understanding to form a 299-strong central committee. The politburo, similarly, will have 99 members and the standing committee 33.
Maoist leaders in the task force have proposed to keep 'People's war and Janaandolan of 2006 inter-related with that' in the preamble of interim statute. But UML leaders rejected the proposal.
Maoist leaders similarly have opposed the proposal of UML to keep sun as the election symbol of the unified party. They have proposed to keep hammer and sickle inside a circle, the Maoist symbol, as the unified party's election symbol instead.
Maoist Center had accepted sun as the election symbol before announcing the electoral alliance for federal and provincial elections with a promise to unify the party after the elections.
