The Supreme Court has scrapped the decision taken by the Election Commission in registering the name Nepal Communist Party (NCP) co-run by KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal and given the name to Rishi Ram Kattel.
With this decision of the Supreme Court, the dispute within the ruling NCP divided into two camps has become more complicated. Now, the ruling NCP will have to make changes in the party’s name.
The Election Commission will call on the NCP to change its name following the court’s decision. For that, party chairpersons Oli and Dahal have to decide on a new name and reach the Commission along with party general secretary Bishnu Poudel to register the revised party name.
As the party must now change its name and statute accordingly, a decision from two-thirds of the party’s central members is required for the same. In the current scenario, the rift between Oli and Dahal makes arriving to any conclusion almost impossible.
Kattel, coordinator of the Nepal Communist Party, had filed a case at the apex court saying that the Election Commission had illegally registered the ruling party’s name as NCP despite the name belonging to his party.
A joint bench of justices Bam Kumar Shrestha and Kumar Regmi today ruled to overturn the Commission’s decision.
According to Kattel, the party led by him was registered with the Election Commission on August 6, 2013. His party’s name was abbreviated as NCP.
The erstwhile CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Center), which contested the 2017 House of Representatives election as coalition, had formally merged both parties in May 17, 2018 on the occasion of Madan Bhandari Memorial Day.
Accordingly, Election Commission on July 6, 2018 registered the new and unified Nepal Communist Party as a new political party.
Kattel had argued in his petition that the election law and other laws do not allow the existence of two parties with the same name.
The NCP led by Kattel had been miffed by the Commission decision and had decided to seek legal solution to its problem though the Supreme Court.
