UML-Maoist program for message of unity delayed due to dispute about board

Setopati

2018-04-22 14:04:13

The program jointly organized by CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) on Sunday to celebrate the establishment of the first communist party in Nepal around seven decades ago has been stopped due to dispute about the board kept at the background on the stage. The program scheduled to start at Rashtriya Sabhagriha at one in the afternoon did not start on time after opposition for not putting pictures of global communist leaders including Lenin. The board that had small portraits of Pushpa Lal Shrestha, Madan Bhandari and Manmohan Adhikari, and bigger ones of UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Maoist Center Pushpa Kamal Dahal was removed after opposition from the Maoist cadres who chanted slogans demanding its removal. The program was jointly organizing to send a message of unity amidst doubts that the long-awaited unification may not eventually happen. UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Maoist Center counterpart Pushpa Kamal Dahal are scheduled to address the program to be organized by the coordination committee for unification, and give message of unity. Oli and Dahal have been holding long one-on-one meetings almost every day to finalize unification. The two chairmen will also brief the cadres about the progress in their recent meetings during the program. The meeting of the coordination committee for unification held at the prime minister’s Official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday had put unification on hold citing lack of adequate homework. The meeting had also authorized the two chairmen to finalize the reports prepared by the two task forces formed to expedite unification. The parties had scheduled unification for April 22 to mark the establishment of the first communist party in Nepal but have yet to agree on some issues including representation at the top level of the unified party.
Maoist Center says there should be equal representation in the standing, politburo and central committees but UML disagrees.
The task force including leaders from both the parties has almost agreed on a 300-strong central committee. UML central committee currently has 209 members, and UML leaders have proposed to add Maoist leaders to take the number to 300.
UML argues there cannot be equal sharing in the central committee after the two parties shared tickets in 60:40 proportion in the recent federal and provincial elections, and candidacy for the National Assembly election in 70:30 proportion.
Maoist Center disagrees and argues that doing so would seem like a takeover of Maoist Center by UML instead of unification, and proposes that unification should be done in a manner that self-respect of both the parties is honored to make the unified party strong even in the future.