NEPAL: MAOISTS MERGE WITH SMALL COMMUNIST PARTY;

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000068

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2018
TAGS: PGOV PTER PINR KDEM NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: MAOISTS MERGE WITH SMALL COMMUNIST PARTY;
MINOR NAME CHANGE RESULTS

Classified By: Ambassador Nancy J. Powell. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
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1. (SBU) On January 12, the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist
(CPN-M),Nepal's largest party, merged with a minor communist
party, the Communist Party of Nepal - Unity Center Masal
(UC),to form the United Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist
(UCPN-M). A joint convention of the two parties' Central
Committees endorsed the unification and elected Prime
Minister Pushpa Dahal chairman of the unified party. Leaders
held a rally on January 13 in Kathmandu to announce the
merger. On January 16, the UCPN-M held its first Central
Committee meeting since the unification and announced new
responsibilities for its leaders. Subsequent party meetings
have continued to hash out the responsibilities of the
various party leaders, including the former head of the UC,
who has been given a leading role in the unified party.

Two Communist Parties Unite
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2. (SBU) On January 12, the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist
and the Communist Party of Nepal - Unity Center Masal (UC)
(more commonly known by its political front, the People's
Front Nepal or PFN) formally merged, creating the United (or
Unified) Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (UCPN-M). A joint
convention of the two central committees endorsed the
unification and elected Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
chairman. The convention also decided that the UCPN-M would
have a 175-member central committee. It declared it was
dropping Prachandapath as its guiding ideology. The enlarged
party gains one cabinet seat, Minister of Health and
Population Giriraj Mani Pokharel, and eight Members of
Parliament in the Constituent Assembly (CA). (Note: With the
addition of Pokharel, the Maoists have 11 seats in the
23-member cabinet. With the eight former PFN MPs tacked on,
the Maoists have 235 MPs in what will ultimately be a
601-person CA after by-elections in April. End note.)

Rhetoric Against Imperialism
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3. (SBU) Addressing a public rally in Kathmandu's Open
Theater on January 13, PM Dahal announced that the
unification of the Maoists and Unity Center Masal heralded a
new era in the fight against imperialism. Dahal called for
all of the communist factions in Nepal to form a single party
to protect national sovereignty and freedom. The Prime
Minister lambasted entities who would interfere with the
Maoists' control of the government, indirectly including his
coalition partners. As reported by the leading daily
newspaper, "Kantipur," outgoing UC chief Narayan Kazi
Shrestha said the party would revolt if the process of
drafting the people's constitution, peace process and army
integration were hampered. He proclaimed that the united
party would not act on the directives of "foreign powers,"
and that the UCPN-M would not address the "imperialists"
(e.g., U.S.) and the "expansionists" (e.g., India) as big
brothers (i.e., in a friendly way) because the UCPN-M wanted
to protect Nepal's national independence.

Revised Party Leadership
--------------


4. (SBU) On January 16, the UPCN-M held its first Central
Committee meeting as a unified party. According to press
reports, the party politburo was to consist of 45 members and
the more powerful party secretariat of 15 members. The
UCPN-M expanded the existing 11-member Maoist secretariat to
include four former UC leaders. The new secretariat includes
the following (in protocol order with original party in
parentheses):

- Pushpa Kamal Dahal (CPN-M)

KATHMANDU 00000068 002 OF 002


- Mohan Baidya (CPN-M)
- Narayan Kazi Shrestha (UC)
- Baburam Bhattarai (CPN-M)
- Ram Bahadur Thapa (CPN-M)
- Chandra Prakash Gajurel (CPN-M)
- Post Bahadur Bogati (CPN-M)
- Dev Gurung (CPN-M)
- Krishna Bahadur Mahara (CPN-M)
- Netra Bikram Chand (CPN-M)
- Barshaman Pun (CPN-M)
- Amik Sherchan (UC)
- Lila Mani Pokharel (UC)
- Giriraj Mani Pokharel (UC)
- Top Bahadur Rayamajhi (CPN-M)

More Changes Follow
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5. (SBU) Since January 16, the Maoists have continued to
reallocate responsibilities among their top leaders.
According to the media, the Central Committee decided on
January 21 to hand over the leadership of the party's
activities in government, the Parliament and the street to
Baburam Bhattarai, Narayan Shrestha and Mohan Baidya,
respectively. These three areas correspond to the three
areas the Maoists had targeted in their national cadres'
meeting in November. The Central Committee meeting on the
21st postponed the decision to expand its membership to 175
members, settling for 138 members for now. It also
reportedly named the party's spokesman, Dinanath Sharma, as
the 16th member of the party secretariat. Post Bahadur
Bogati was confirmed as the party's chief whip in the CA.

Biographic Note: Narayan Shrestha
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6. (SBU) Narayan Kazi Shrestha (aka Prakash),48, was named
to the central Secretariat of the United Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist) on January 16, 2009. He was the General
Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal - Unity Center Masal
from 2001 to January 11, 2009. He began his political career
as a student activist with the Nepali Congress and was
imprisoned in 1976 in Kathmandu. He was imprisoned again in
1980 in Gorkha district and again in 1986 in Lalitpur. He
joined the Nepal Communist Party -- Fourth Congress in 1981.
He was underground for almost two decades and did not
formally come out of hiding until the monarchy was abolished
in May 2008. Shrestha played a special role in brokering the
November 2005 12-Point Agreement. He was born in 1960 at
Jaubari in Gorkha district. He has a Master's degree in
Public Administration from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.
Shrestha, who is a Newar, is single.

Comment: More Mergers Unlikely
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7. (C) Much fanfare surrounded the merger of two communist
parties, but -- despite the Prime Minister's rhetoric -- the
UCPN-M is unlikely to inspire a wave of communist
unification. Although a faction within the large Communist
Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist (UML) would perhaps
welcome unification with the Maoists, that faction is small
and the gap between the two parties' ideologies is still too
big. Notwithstanding its hard-line name -- and its militant
Youth Force -- the UML is more social democratic than
revolutionary in outlook. The other communist parties in the
CA also have too little in common with the Maoists to join
them.
POWELL