The CPN (Maoist Center) has proposed to change the party’s name and electoral symbol.
President Pushpa Kamal Dahal proposed this in the report presented during the party’s standing committee meeting held from January 26 to February 4.
Party office secretary Dor Prasad Upadhyaya told Setopati that the meeting approved the proposal and it will be taken to the central committee for a decision. He added that the discussion on the issue will also take place during the two-month campaign to build the party’s organization.
“The issue of changing the name of the party and the electoral symbol has been debated for a long time. This time, the discussions will take place in the lower committees. Further discussion on the matter will take place at the central committee meeting to be held in two months. A decision can be made if the meeting deems it necessary,” Upadhyaya added.
The party had tried to form a socialist center by unifying with other communist parties before the elections and had even held talks about it with the CPN (United Socialist) and the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), but to no avail. Some Maoist leaders proposed to change the name of the party and the electoral symbol at that time.
The chairman of the Nepal Samajwadi party, Baburam Bhattarai, has also set the condition of changing the party’s name for unification with the Maoist Center.
Maoist vice president Pampha Bhusal said that formal discussion on the issue has yet to start, but Upadhyaya noted that the leaders concluded that the main reason for the party’s vote drop in the latest elections was the party’s name and the election symbol.
He reasoned that people see it from the point of view of the past when the party is called the Maoist Center, adding that it is necessary to change the name of the party and the electoral symbol to convey the message that the former rebels have changed now.
