Eight communist parties, including CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist), have agreed to unite. With this decision, the CPN (Maoist Centre)—which waged a 12-year armed insurgency—has abandoned the core principle of Maoism after 32 years since its establishment. Founded in 1993 (2050 BS), the Maoist party began its armed struggle in 1995 (2052 BS).
Along with abandoning Maoist ideology, the party has also discarded its circular election symbol featuring a hammer and sickle. While the unified party has yet to finalize a name, it has agreed on a five-pointed star as its election symbol.
According to the agreement, the guiding principle of the unified party will be “Marxism–Leninism,” and the program will follow “Scientific Socialism with Nepali Characteristics.”
The largest party in the merger, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, previously adhered to Maoism as its guiding principle. The second-largest party, led by Madhav Kumar Nepal, followed “Marxism–Leninism” as its guiding principle and “People’s Multiparty Democracy” as its program. Nepal’s party had adopted the Jabj strategy after the fifth general convention of CPN-UML in 1992 (2049 BS).
The eight parties signed a joint agreement outlining an 18-point roadmap, including holding a national merger convention within six months. The unified national convention will formalize the party merger, adopt a manifesto, interim statutes, and form the central committee.
While the party name has not yet been finalized—though “CPN (Socialist)” is under discussion—the five-pointed star will serve as the election symbol. The unified party will operate under a collective leadership system, following democratic centralism. Provincial, district, municipal, and ward committees will each have a coordinator and co-coordinator, drawn from the merging parties wherever possible.
Some senior leaders, however, will not participate in the merger. Leaders such as Jhalanath Khanal, Ghanashyam Bhusal group of CPN (Unified Socialist), Janardan Sharma of CPN (Maoist Centre), and Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’ have opted out of the unification process. These dissenting leaders plan to restructure their parties and later discuss potential participation in the unified party.
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