Deadline for Communist party unification comes to an end. No progress in the unification progress

The extended deadline of two task-forces formed by CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Center to prepare the party unification structure has come to an end. The extended deadline has been due past without any work done as the task-force members themselves were appointed ministers and could not focus on unification structure. Following their inability to finish the work in the extended deadline, both task-forces have prepared to submit the party unification structure to the Party Unification Coordination Committee on March 26. A member of a political and intellectual task-force under one of the unification task-force, Devendra Poudel said the task-force could not conduct its work due to other responsibilities such as cabinet expansion among others. The task-forces have so far reached agreement on the issues of party's guiding principle, Communist revolution in Nepal, World's Communist revolution among others. CPN-UML and CPN-MC had initiated the unification process publicizing on October 3rd, 2017 to contest the elections jointly and have been preparing to formally declare the party unification on the Lenin Day. The Party Unification Coordination Committee as per the seven-point agreement signed between the parties on February 19 had formed two separate task-forces to prepare the organisational and political structure of the unified party. The Party Unification Coordination Committee meeting on February 20 had directed the task-force to submit the report by 9th March. However following the failure to submit the report within the given time, the deadline was further extended by 10 days. 7 of the 11 members of task forces have been appointed as ministers. The unification task remained stalled after majority of the task-force members were appointed as ministers, keeping them engaged with ministry's work rather than unification structure.