KATHMANDU, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the largest political party in Nepal, was formally split on Wednesday as a faction registered a new party with the Election Commission.
The newly formed Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) is led by Madhav Kumar Nepal, a former senior leader of the CPN-UML and a former prime minister who has the support of 55 members from the CPN-UML Central Committee.
For the registration of the new party, the 55 Central Committee members and 29 members of federal parliament were present at the Election Commission for the verification process in the day.
"The commission has registered CPN (Unified Socialist) after it fulfilled the required legal criteria for the formation of a new party," Komal Prasad Dhamala, assistant spokesperson at the commission, told Xinhua.
On the same day, the Janata Samajbadi Party headed for a split as well, as a faction of the fourth largest party in Nepal registered a new party named Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, Nepal with the Election Commission.
The two new parties are expected to join the government headed by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The elections for local governments are slated for March-April next year, while the general elections will be held by November-December next year.
The CPN-UML remains the largest party in Nepal despite the split. Enditem
