Eight Parties Unite

Eight parties, including the CPN Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialist, have agreed to merge, with the formal announcement scheduled for Kartik 20. On Sunday evening, a discussion was held at the Maoist Centre’s central office in Parisdanda, after which the agreement on party unity was signed.

The agreement was signed by CPN Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Unified Socialist Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal, Janasamajbadi Party Nepal Chair Subas Raj Kafle, Nepal Socialist Party Chair Mahindra Ray Yadav, CPN General Secretary Chiran Pun, CPN Socialist Chair Raju Karki, CPN Maoist Socialist Chair Karnajit Budhathoki, and CPN Communist Chair Prem Bahadur Singh.

The parties have not revealed the new party name yet, but they have agreed to use the “Five-Pointed Star” as the election symbol. This star symbol has been previously used by CPN (ML), Janmorcha, and most recently by the Subas Kafle-led Janasamajbadi Party Nepal. The new party will continue using this symbol after the merger.

With the merger, Prachanda-led Maoist Centre will abandon the guiding principle of “Maoism,” and the party name will also change. The hammer and sickle inside the circle will no longer be used as the election symbol, meaning voters aligned with the Prachanda faction will no longer mark ballots with the circular hammer and sickle symbol.

Historically, the star symbol has a short but interesting chapter in Nepalese politics. It was first used by Bamdev Gautam’s CPN (ML) after splitting from UML in 2054 BS, contested elections, and passed through different leftist parties over the decades. Now, Prachanda, Madhav Nepal, and other leaders plan to use it as a symbol of leftist unity again, with its future significance to be determined by the upcoming elections.