Kathmandu, April 5
The Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar-led Madheshi Janaadhikar Forum-Demorcratic and Shiva Lal Thapa’s Rastriya Janamukti Party are set to announce unification later today.
The parties are uniting just a few days ahead of the Election Commission’s scheduled date to register candidacy for the May 14 elections. According to party leaders, the new party has been named ‘Nepal Loktantrik Forum’.
Gachchhadar will be named President of the Party while Thapa will be its co-chair. The party’s central committee will have 135 members from Forum Democratic and 35 from the erstwhile Janamukti Party.
A law recently passed by Parliament says a political party needs to win at least 3 per cent of votes under the PR system and win a minimum of one seat in the first-past-the-post system in parliamentary elections to get official recognition as a political party. This has put pressure on fringe parties to unite ahead of elections.
Similarly, as the Rastriya Janamukti party is not represented in Parliament, it won’t get an election symbol in the May 14 elections. This is one of the reasons the party decided to unite with MJF-D, leaders say.
