Report in The Kathmandu Post, June 16, 2023
The much talked about Socialist Front is set to be announced either Friday or on Saturday, leaders of the parties concerned said. Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Wednesday that preparations are underway to form a ‘broad socialist front’ in order to ‘complete the socialist revolution in the country.’
A concept paper for the front, which will bring together several leftist and communist parties, is ready and the front will soon come into being, he added.
“We are trying to launch the Socialist Front by Friday,” said Maoist Centre leader Devendra Poudel. “It will be announced on Saturday, if not on Friday.”
The largest communist party of the country, CPN-UML, will not be part of the front.
Leaders of member parties said it is an alliance of leftist and communist parties. Some nominally leftist forces like the Maoist Centre, the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party, and the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand will be part of the front, according to leaders.
Talks are underway to pull in the Nepal Samajbadi Party led by Baburam Bhattarai and a group led by former CPN-UML vice-chair Bamdev Gautam as well, said Poudel.
If all six parties and individual leaders join the front, it would have a total of 54 lawmakers in the lower house. The prime minister is holding decisive talks with Bhattarai and Gautam on Thursday and Friday in order to bring them on board, said an aide to Dahal.
“But we are unsure whether Bhattarai will join the front as the relation between Prime Minister Dahal and Bhattaari these days is not so cordial,” an aide to the prime minister said.
The CPN (Unified Socialist) has called a meeting of its secretariat for Friday morning in order to make an official decision to join the front.
“We have had long discussions on the formation of the socialist front,” Jagannath Khatiwada, CPN (Unified Socialist) spokesman said. “Finally, it is happening.”
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, vice chairman of the CPN (Maoist Center), is coordinating with different political parties in order to bring them under the front’s umbrella. If Bhattarai does not join, then there will be four parties in the front.
Khatiwada said that the concept paper for the front is ready and member parties will lead the front by turns. It could be in alphabetic order or something similar, he said.
The front will accommodate the political forces that are committed to federalism, democracy, republicanism, inclusion, and secularism among other key features of the present constitution of the country, said party leaders involved in the negotiations.
They said the front will advocate for ‘socialism with Nepali characteristics’ and federalism.
A task-force representing four parties has already prepared the manifesto, which will be unveiled simultaneously during the announcement of the new party.
“Through the socialist front, we will take an initiative for the revival of the Nepal Communist Party,” Dahal had said at a function in Dang. Prime Minister Dahal has long been harping on reviving the party, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in March, 2021 as a party with the same name was already in existence.
The CPN-UML and the Maoist Centre had united to form the NCP in June 2018 and registered the party at the Election Commission. In March 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Rishiram Kattel who had challenged the commission’s decision to award the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) name—NCP within brackets—to KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, saying that “Nepal Communist Party” was already registered under his name back
in 2013. This gave rebirth to the two communist parties—the UML and the Maoist Centre.
The NCP was considered the strongest communist party in Nepal’s history and had an almost two-thirds majority in Parliament. “The socialist revolution is not easy and straightforward. It will take its own unique and natural course,” the prime minister said on Wednesday. https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/06/16/socialist-front-launch-either-friday-or-saturday-leaders
