The Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) leaders are in two minds over whether to forge an electoral alliance with the Maoists in the forthcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) election.

Reports say that leaders were sharply divided on the issue when it was raised during group discussion among senior party leaders in the ongoing central committee meeting.

The party had formed five different groups to discuss issues such as electoral alliance, and party manifesto.

Standing committee members KP Oli and Bamdev Gautam are standing on diagonally opposite points on the issue of forging alliance with the Maoists. Oli has said that it will harm the party if it joins hands with the Maoists, but Gautam believes the party needs to forge alliance with all democratic forces.

Gautam said that the final decision on this issue will be taken by the full house meeting of the central committee, on Friday.

The groups have also discussed the issue of party’s manifesto regarding its vision on how the country should be restructured after the CA election – whether it should adopt presidential system or prime ministerial system and what kind of federalism shout it adopt, among others. nepalnews.com sd Feb 08 08