CPN-UML and Maoist Center have ruled Nepal in rotation over the past decade; they have now closed ranks to become Left Alliance (LA)
Left Alliance leader K. P. Sharma Oli was appointed Nepal’s new prime minister in February, almost three months after the organisation won the December elections and amidst deepening social problems.
The Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), which is headed by Oli, and the Communist Party of Nepal Maoist Centre (Maoist Centre), led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, established the Left Alliance in October 2017. In the 275-member parliament the CPN-UML won 121 seats and the Maoist Centre 53. The National Congress of Nepal (NCP), has only 63 seats.
The CPN-UML and Maoist Center have ruled the country in rotation over the past decade.
Oli is currently attempting to win the support of several minor parties, which would give the Left Alliance a two-thirds parliamentary majority and the power to amend the country’s constitution. The Sanghya Samakbodi Forum, which has 16 seats, and the Rastriya Janata Party with 17, have declared their support. Both are parties of the Madhesis from the Nepal’s southern Terai region.
On March 11, Prime Minister Oli won a confidence vote endorsed by 208 MPs in Parliament and two days later party nominee Bidya Devi Bhandari was overwhelmingly re-elected Nepal president.
Oli has also secured wide-ranging power related to foreign policy, national security and finances and will appoint a host of think-tanks to advise him. According to the Kathmandu Post, the prime minister’s office “will direct, control and conduct Nepal’s governance system.”
According to a recent International Labour Organisation report, 20 to 35 percent of Nepali workers are living on less than $US3.10, or about 320 Nepal rupees per day, with deep going poverty in rural areas. The World Bank predicts that Nepal’s growth rate will only be around 3 percent on average from 2017 to 2030.
The CPN-UML and Maoist Centre have shared cabinet posts in the new government and prior to the elections said they would merge the two parties under the name of Communist Party of Nepal. The two were bitter rivals in the past and it is entirely unclear how the unification process will occur.
The CPN-UML and Maoist Centre claim that they are “preparing a basis for communist-oriented socialism by enhancing nationalism, democracy, social justice, and social transformation.” The “guiding principles” of the new party, they have said, will be “Marxism-Leninism” and the adoption of “a multi-party democratic system.”
During his swearing in, Prime Minister Oli declared: “We have great connectivity with India and an open border. All that’s fine and we’ll increase connectivity even further, but we can’t forget that we have two neighbours … We don’t want to depend on one country or have one option.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken over the phone with Oli since the elections and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj travelled to Kathmandu in early February to meet with Oli and other political leaders. Modi is also expected to visit the country soon.
For its part, Beijing has announced that Xi Jinping will visit Nepal in the coming months. Soon after Left Alliance’s election victory, Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the Communist Party of China’s international department visited Kathmandu to congratulate Oli.
China has decided to complete and extend the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to Kathmandu by 2020 as part of its One Belt, One Road policy. Last month Nepal joined with China’s Internet service, ending India’s monopoly on cyber connectivity in the country.
-By W. A. Sunil