Kathmandu, March 25
Prime Minister and CPN UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli wants the merger process between his party and the CPN Maoist centre concluded before his official visit to New Delhi, sources say.
According to sources close to the Prime Minister, Oli plans to head to New Delhi from April 6-8. It had earlier been decided that the merger announcement would be made on April 22, the establishment day of Nepal’s oldest communist party. However, Oli wants the announcement to be preponed.
“Prime Minister Oli want to visit India as a powerful leader of a united communist party,” a source said. “That is why he wants the merger to be announced before he meets Modi in Delhi,” the source added. Prime Minister Oli knows that Modi and his party have earned a big mandate from the Indian people and he wants to show the establishment in New Delhi that he too has the backing of a majority of the electorate.
Further, Oli wants to position himself as Xi and Modi’s Nepali equivalent by assuming the chair of Nepal’s largest communist party and commanding more than a two-third majority in Parliament.
