Kathmandu, 13 April 2020.
Two days after the government issued an ordinance relaxing requirements to split a party, two regional parties have decided to merge, fearing Oli was targeting dissatisfied leaders of their parties.
Top leaders of the Samajwadi Party Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party signed an agreement to merge their parties some minutes before midnight yesterday. They have decided to name the new party as ‘Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal’ in Nepali and People’s Socialist Party Nepal in English.
The existing flag of the Samajwadi Party will be used as the flag of the new party whereas the party’s election symbol will be the umbrella, used by the RJPN now.
The four-point agreement does not mention anything about the leadership of the unified party. Though the leaders claim there will not be any dispute, it will be interesting to watch how they will manage it. Both constituents of the parties were formed out of mergers among different parties in the past few years. Unable to find an all-acceptable leader, the RJPN had a six-member presidium whereas the Samajwadi Party had different chairmen for the federal council and central committee.
Four leaders of each side have signed the merger agreement. They include Mahantha Thakur, Rajendra Mahato, Mahendra Raya Yadav, and Sharad Singh Bhandari of the RJPN, and Baburam Bhattarai, Upendra Yadav, Ashok Rai and Rajendra Shrestha of the Samajwadi.
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