Nepal's communist opposition reunites

The Communists are less radical than the Maoist rebels

By the BBC's Sushil Sharma in Kathmandu

The two biggest communist parties of Nepal have re-united four years after they split.

The main opposition, Nepal Communist Party, United Marxist-Leninists (UML) and its breakaway faction, the Marxist-Leninists (ML), have merged into a single party.

Communists say 'national government' needed to fight rebels

The move comes ahead of crucial local council elections in which the communist opposition is expected to face a strong challenge from the governing Nepali Congress Party.

The unity of the biggest communist opposition parties will not pose an immediate threat to the government of the centrist Nepali Congress led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

The Nepali Congress has a comfortable majority in the 205-seat parliament.

Electoral prospects

But the move could undermine the Nepali Congress' goal of winning the local council elections which are due in three months time.

However, there has been speculation that these polls might be deferred on security grounds.

Control over local councils is considered crucial for winning the next parliamentary elections.

Security remains the key issue

The unified communist opposition had swept the local council elections five years ago and was later poised to win the parliamentary elections.

But policy differences and leadership tussles split the party just ahead of parliamentary polls.

This robbed it of a chance to form what would have been the first communist-led majority government in the world's only Hindu kingdom.

The next general elections are due to be held in two years time.

Republican pressures

But there has been speculation in certain political circles about the possibility of polls being held early.

In-fighting in the faction-ridden Nepali Congress and the opposition's call for an all-party national government to tackle the long-running Maoist insurgency drive these speculations.

The reunification of the more moderate communists is also seen as a move to counter the influence of the radical Maoist communists across Nepal.

The Maoists have been waging an armed struggle to replace Nepal's parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy with a communist republic.

The re-unified communist party believes in multi-party parliamentary democracy and its workers have been among the targets of Maoist attacks.