The talks about forming a socialist center including left parties in the ruling coalition has fizzled out.
CPN (Maoist Center) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, CPN (Unified Socialist) led by Madhav Kumar Nepal, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) led by Upendra Yadav, Nepal Samajwadi Party led by Baburam Bhattarai and National Assembly member Bam Dev Gautam were planning to contest the election forming a socialist center.
The top leaders of the parties held multiple rounds of meeting and there were reports about the socialist center contesting the federal and provincial election to be held on November 20 with a single election symbol. But the leaders have not discussed the issue in recent times.
“I don’t know anything about socialist center. I have not talked with any leader about the issue in the intervening period. They have not shown interest after deciding to ally with Nepali Congress (NC),” Gautam, who actively pursued formation of the socialist center, told Setopati in a tone of resignation.
Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha also confirmed that there was no progress on socialist center. “There is a feeling that there is no need for a separate front when we have decided to ally with NC,” Shrestha said.
The issue has now been limited to Bhattarai-led Nepal Samajwadi Party and Maoist Center contesting the election with the same election symbol. “Bhattarai has proposed to move forward with a single election symbol but our party has yet to decide on it,” Shrestha added.
The ruling coalition is now busy to form modality for sharing of seats and the 11-strong task force led by NC leader Krishna Sitaula is holding discussion about sharing of seats. JSP leader Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav attributes the lack of progress on socialist center to the discussion about sharing of seats inside the ruling coalition.
Deputy General Secretary of Unified Socialist Prakash Jwala told Setopati that the leaders have now concluded that contesting the election with a single election symbol is technically complex and are now working about forming a common manifesto of the left parties in the coalition.
Leaders of Maoist Center and Unified Socialist have told Setopati that the talks about unifying the two parties had led to discussion on socialist center.
Leaders of both the parties confirmed that Dahal had proposed unification to Nepal who had accepted the proposal without even consulting senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal.
Unified Socialist leaders said that Dahal stepped back from unification only after they met him and warned that many leaders in the party formed after split in UML would return back to UML if Nepal opted for unification with Maoist Center without consulting Khanal.
The top leaders then started to talk about socialist center after the plan for unification didn’t take off.
