Kathmandu, April 22
The CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist Centre, which are preparing to announce the merger at the earliest, on Sunday organised a joint function on the occasion of the birth anniversary of communist leader Vladimir Lenin and the establishment day of Communist Party of Nepal.
The parties had claimed that they would give a message that they were determined to unify to their cadres from the same stage. However, a nasty dispute between the parties over a trivial affair marred the function, causing a delay of more than one hour.
Before the programme began, some Maoist cadres, including members of the Young Communist League, objected to the banner the UML had prepared for the function citing it did not have pictures of world communist leaders including Marx, Lenin and Mao. The banner had pictures of three Nepali communist leaders–Pushpa Lal Shrestha, Madan Bhandari and Man Mohan Adhikari–which the UML originally uses in its regular functions.
Whereas the Maoist party also recognises Shrestha as a founder of communist party in Nepal, Bhandari and Adhikari are leaders of two groups that later merged into the UML.
Following the disruption, top leaders held a secret meeting to decide how to move ahead with the function. Later, they agreed to add another banner with pictures of Marx, Lenin and Mao and continue the programme as scheduled.*
*Updated
