KATHMANDU: The CPN (Unified Socialist) has constituted a negotiation team to initiate unification talks with the CPN (Maoist Centre).

The team will be led by senior vice-chair Beduram Bhusal, according to a statement issued by party chair Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The negotiation panel includes senior leader Pramesh Hamal and vice-chair Prakash Jwala.

The statement said the talks would be guided by mutually agreed ideological grounds.

The party outlined key points for unification: adopting the name “Communist Party of Nepal,” acknowledging that the Nepali revolution has advanced from the democratic to the socialist stage, and identifying the main contradiction in society as between the general public and the comprador-bureaucratic capitalist class.

Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ told his party’s central committee meeting today that efforts were underway for both unification and broader polarization among the forces within the Socialist Front.

The Socialist Front currently comprises the Maoist Centre, Unified Socialist, Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’-led Communist Party of Nepal, and Mahindra Raya Yadav-led Nepal Samajwadi Party.