Nepal’s former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and former deputy premier Bamdev Gautam have agreed to unify their respective parties, according to a media report on Friday.
In a joint statement, Nepal and Gautam said the decision to unify CPN (Unified Socialist) and CPN Ekta Rastriya Abhiyan respectively was made in view of the "historical necessity" of uniting Nepal’s communist movement, Republica newspaper reported.
Madhav Nepal’s party has 10 members in the House of Representatives (lower house) and eight members in the National Assembly (upper house) while Gautam’s party has no representation in either house.
The formal merger will be announced on July 18 at the National Assembly Hall in Kathmandu, the newspaper said quoting the statement.
Last month, Nepal, who is also chairman of the CPN-Unified Socialist, was charged by Nepal's anti-graft agency in a land misappropriation case.
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case at a special court against Madhav Nepal and 92 others for their alleged involvement in the land deal with a private company.
