Khanal says UML unity possible if party embraces socialist revolution

KATHMANDU, Nov 3: Senior CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Jhalanath Khanal has said that the door to unity with the CPN-UML remains open, provided the UML agrees to adopt the path of socialist revolution and transformation alongside its long-held doctrine of people’s multi-party democracy.

The former prime minister and respected leftist ideologue said his faction is ready to return to the UML — the mother party from which the Unified Socialist split in 2021 — if there is a genuine ideological correction and commitment to progressive transformation.

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“We are ready to return to the UML. However, we must move forward on the path of socialist revolution. We can return only if we are prepared to advance not just along the line of people’s multi-party democracy but also through revolutionary transformation,” Khanal said.

Khanal, who co-founded the UML in the early 1990s and led it as party chair for a brief period, said he still holds deep affection for the party. “It is the same party that we created in the beginning. We still have love and affection for that party,” he said, adding that unity could be possible if the UML “corrects its ideological deviation” and returns to the right path.

However, Khanal expressed dissatisfaction with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, saying the party has suffered from the absence of stable and consistent ideological thinking under his leadership. “We expect stable ideological thinking within UML. But that stability has not developed in Oli ji,” he remarked.

The CPN (Unified Socialist), formed in August 2021 after splitting from the UML, has recently reached a political understanding with the CPN (Maoist Centre) to pursue unification under the leadership of former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. Yet, leaders like Khanal and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal have shown reluctance to merge immediately, citing unresolved ideological and strategic differences.

Khanal’s latest remarks suggest he still sees a possibility of reuniting Nepal’s divided communist forces — but only if the UML undergoes what he calls an “ideological correction” and recommits to revolutionary socialism.