Baidya-led 33-party alliance shuns registration at EC

The major parties in the 33-member alliance led by Mohan Baidya´s CPN-Maoist and a majority of the other parties in the alliance have not registered at the Election Commission (EC) and have vowed to further institutionalize their alliance.

CPN-Maoist, which was formed after a split in the UCPN (Maoist), Matrika Yadav-led CPN (Maoist), Pari Thapa´s CPN (Ekikrit), Mani Thapa´s Revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal, Kumar Lingden´s Limbuwan State Council, Kishwor Bishwas-led front and CPN Unified Marxist are some of the major constituent members of the alliance that didn´t register in the EC even as the deadline for party registration expired Thursday. 

"Only a few members of our alliance registered their parties in the EC. They are still committed to the alliance´s programs and policies because they had registered prior to the alliance officially decided to boycott the process," Mani Thapa told Republica. "The major and majority parties of our group haven´t registered at the EC and we are for further intensifying our agitation against the present government."

Mani Thapa said the alliance´s member parties have been encouraged as the government and other major political parties including UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and United Madhesi Democratic Front (UDMF) "failed to create division among the member parties despite their attempts for that."

Even former CA member Pari Thapa, who had already practiced parliamentary politics for years, didn´t register his party.

Pari Thapa said they have decided to further institutionalize the alliance by giving it a formal name. So far the grouping is known just as 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya. "But now we will give it a proper name. We will draft a common manifesto and a code of conduct so as to institutionalize the grouping and to further strengthen the unity and the movement," said Pari Thapa.

According to him, they are likely to come up with further programs from an interaction among the member parties scheduled for Saturday.

He informed that they are already decided to launch resistance protest "if the government unilaterally announced the poll date despite their objection."

As the one month deadline expired Thursday, altogether 139 political parties filed applications for registration at the EC for ensuring their participation in the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections.

Out of the 139 parties, 110 are new while the remaining 29 political parties were represented in the dissolved CA.

Altogether 75 political parties had registered for the 2008 CA elections. Altogether 54 parties had contested the polls while 25 were elected and the number of political parties in the House reached 33 by the time of its dissolution due to splits in several parties.