While more than a dozen communist parties are registered with the Election Commission, two more parties with similar names are also preparing to be added to the list. Recently, two new communist parties, the Nepali Communist Party and the Communist Party of Nepal, are in the process of registering with the Commission. Out of the 125 parties already registered with the Commission, 14 have the word 'communist' in their names.

Even though the basic political ideas and philosophy are the same, there seems to be a competition to show that they are different from others by adding the word 'communist' to their names. Some of them have tried to show themselves different by writing 'Marxist-Leninist' and some have even written 'Marxist'.

The Supreme Court's order in the NCP dispute was - 'No decision can be made or any activity allowed to be done in a way that is not clearly prohibited by law.' The activity that the law directly says cannot be done cannot be done indirectly.' In 2006, Pushpalal Shrestha first established the Communist Party of Nepal. He is also its founding general secretary. However, since then, the party has been continuously splitting and merging many times, and new parties have also been opened under the name Communist. Recently, Netra Bikram Chand has applied for registration with the Election Commission under the name 'Communist Party Nepal'. Even though the Communist Party of Nepal led by Rishi Kattel has already been registered, Chand has put the word 'Nepal' at the end to show that his party is different. Similarly, parties including the Maoists and Unified Socialists have also named the new party 'Nepali Communist Party' after the unification in a similar way. After questions were raised about the similar name, leader Barshaman Pun claimed that the party name was selected in consultation with the commission. However, a commission commissioner said that the commission did not give any advice on this matter.

Seven years ago, after the unification of UML and Maoists, the new party was named 'Nepal Communist Party (NCP)'. The new party was registered on 23 Jestha 2075 by adding 'NCP' to the coast to differentiate it from Kattel's party. Then, Kattel approached the Supreme Court against the commission's decision, saying that the name was identical to his party. The Supreme Court ruled that another party with the same name could not be registered while the Nepal Communist Party was registered under Kattel's leadership. A bench of Justices Bam Kumar Shrestha and Kumar Regmi had held that there was no difference in the pronunciation of the letters and the meaning understood from them, and that they could not be called separate. The Supreme Court's decision had nullified the unity between the UML and the Maoists.

Section 6(1)(e) of the Political Parties Act states that a party will not be registered if its name or symbol is similar to the name or symbol of a party registered with the Commission. Based on that, the Supreme Court had said, 'After the pronunciation of the letters and their expression, there is no substantial difference in the meaning understood from them.' Since the difference is felt or not, that is what is important, it appears to be similar without any difference. No decision can be made or any action allowed to be taken that is clearly prohibited by law, and no action can be taken indirectly, even if the law directly prohibits it.’

Legal provision of Section 6(1)(e) of the Political Parties Act 2073: ‘If the name or symbol of a party is similar to the name or symbol of a party registered with the Commission, the party shall not be registered.’ Even after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the process of registering by simply changing the name or adding a hyphen has not stopped. Political analyst Khagendra Prasai says that the term ‘communist’ is popular in Nepal, and he does not want to abandon it. ‘People do not seem to approve of those who have separated or separated from the Communist Party and distanced themselves from the word communist,’ he says. ‘It seems that parties want to keep the word communist in their names to attract public votes.’

Even after the Supreme Court’s order, the Commission has not taken strict action, so the process of registering parties with similar names has not stopped. When the Commission applied to register a new party, the leader of the Chand-led party was warned by the staff that the name was the same, reading the Supreme Court’s decision. However, the leader kept insisting that the name was different. An officer of the Political Parties Division said that even when suggestions were made to those who came to register a party by changing the letters or changing the words back and forth, they did not accept them. ‘We will complete all the registration processes and propose them to the Commission,’ he said. ‘The final decision on this will be taken by the Commission.’ The term “commission” refers to a meeting of the Chief Commissioner and Commissioners. Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai says that decisions will be taken in accordance with the prevailing laws and established norms regarding party registration.

000

Communist parties registered with the Commission and their key officials

1. Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) – Chandra Prakash Mainali

2. Nepal Communist Party (Marxist) – Ambika Prasad Baib

3. Nepal Communist Party – Lok Narayan Subedi

4. Nepal Communist Party (Unified Marxist-Leninist) – KP Sharma Oli

5. Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Center) – Pushpa Kamal Dahal

6. Maoist Communist Party – Ram Narayan Prasad Pant

7. Nepal Communist Party Marxist (Pushpalal)

8. Nepal Communist Party (Democratic) – Sudip Ruwali

9. Nepal Communist Party National Unity Campaign – Bamdev Gautam

10. Nepal Communist Party (Unified Socialist) – Madhav Kumar Nepal

11. Communist Party of Nepal (Socialist) – Raju Karki

12. Communist Party of Nepal (Gauravshali) – Bhavishwar Parajuli

13. Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Socialist) – Karnajit Budhathoki

14. Communist Party of Nepal Parivartan – Jogman Lama

Other communist parties:

15. Nepal Workers and Peasants Party – Narayanman Bijukchhe

16. National Janamorcha – Chitra Bahadur KC

17. Jana Samajwadi Party – Subas Raj Kafle

18. Janata Janabadi Party – Sandhya Tiwari

Parties with the name Communist that have applied to the Commission for the registration process: