Bam Dev Gautam, who quit CPN-UML a few months back, has announced a new party.
Gautam, who has been holding a campaign for left unity, announced CPN (Unity National Campaign) holding a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
He has kept 75 central members including his wife Tulsa Thapa and son Haris Dev Gautam. The standing committee is 15-strong. He has mentioned Lalitpur as his address while his wife’s address is Bardiya.
Gautam, who had lost the last House of Representatives (HoR) election from Bardiya on a CPN-UML ticket despite the party’s alliance with CPN (Maoist Center) with promise to unify after the election, was nominated to the National Assembly by President Bidya Devi Bhandari in September 2020 on recommendation of the then CPN government.
He was vice-chairman of both UML and CPN.
He had held a national convention for left unity a few days back. Gautam had also called a similar gathering in February 2021 to put pressure for unity when internal dispute in the then CPN—formed after unification of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center)—was near boiling point with chairman KP Sharma Oli leading one faction that was challenged by the faction of another chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The Dahal-Nepal faction had clear majority in CPN and had even expelled Oli. Gautam was neutral even then. He is not active in UML after the Supreme Court (SC) invalidated unification of CPN in March 2021 restoring the two parties to the state before unification.
