CPN-UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokhrel has said the party and CPN (Maoist Center) which are in the process of unification have no debate over an idea of taking up 'sun' as the election symbol of 'united' party.
It may be noted that a meeting of the party unification committee formed to facilitate the unification process earlier Tuesday decided to give the responsibility of finalizing the pressing issues regarding the unification to chairs of both political parties- KP Sharma of CPN-UML and Pushpa Kamal Dahal of CPN (Maoist Center).
As Pokhrel said there is no debate regarding the matter of election symbol, following the unification of both left parties. Presently, sun is the election symbol of CPN-UML while the CPN (Maoist Center) identifies itself with a symbol displaying a hammer and sickle inside a circle.
Leader Pokhrel went on to say that there were no significant disputes regarding the unification between two political parties. The issue of election symbol had been already sorted out. "Chairs of both political parties will further work to give a final touch to some outstanding issues and the next meeting of the coordination committee will decide them."
Though a joint task force of both political parties in the third week of March submitted reports to the coordination committee, proposing for taking the unification process to a conclusion on coming April 22 and received a positive response as well, discussions over the proposal was said be to be delayed due to Prime Minister and UML Chair Oli's recent India visit.
The coordination committee meeting on April 5 decided to make necessary arrangements for a merger between two parties, taking the task force proposal positively.
Following the today's coordination committee meeting, both chairs have started talks at Prime Minister's official residence, Baluwatar.
According to CPN (Maoist Center) leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, it seemed that preparations would not be enough to unite the parties on April 22 when leader Pokhrel's view was that it could not be said now that the announcement of unification would not take place on that date.
Leader Pokhrel refuted the demand for a 50 percent share by the CPN (Maoist Center) in the central committee after unification, adding that roles and responsibilities would be given on the basis of individual's competency, skills, background and necessity.
The CPN-UML has summoned a politburo meeting on April 19 and a central committee meeting for April 20 to discuss the unification issues.
