Kathmandu, May 6
After merging his Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal with the Baburam Bhattarai-led Naya Shakti Party to form the new Samajwadi Party Nepal, Upendra Yadav has appealed to the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal to join the new party.
Both Forum and RJPN are considered to be Madhesh-centric in the mainstream national politics. Besides ruling Nepal Communist Party and the main opposition Nepali Congress, only these two parties have earned the national status in the Federal Parliament.
Speaking at the merger announcement ceremony in Kathmandu this afternoon, Yadav said the parties did not have much time to ‘open small shops’ now.
“Let’s come together and move ahead towards change,” he said.
It has been learned that some Forum leaders had taken initiatives to convince the RJPN to join the new party. Other sources, however, say the two parties cannot unify anytime soon as both consider each other rivals because both of them are based in the southern plains.
They claim the parties pretended to be working hard for the merger earlier just to make Madheshi people believe that their leaders were for a greater Madheshi unity.
