Make the merger work

Two new parties in Tarai-Madhesh uniting to raise common issues signals a maturing of Tarai politics.

Political parties in Nepal tend to unite and break down based on electoral calculus. There seems to be new urgency in smaller parties to band together as the government mulls amending the Political Parties Act, making it easier to split parties, while increasing the vote threshold for smaller outfits to get national party status. In the latest instance of such a merger, the Madhesh-based Janamat Party and the western Tarai-based Nagarik Unmukti Party (NUP) have finalised their unity. The new outfit is to be called the Nagarik Janamat Party. While Janamat chair CK Raut will also chair the new party, Resham Lal Chaudhary, the incumbent NUP patron, will act as the new party’s patron as well. Their announced merger comes just a few days after Madhesh-based parties, including the JSP and the NUP, formed the Federal Democratic Front, with the common goal of completing the incomplete task of constitution amendment and rooting out corruption and inefficiency. The formation of the Nagarik Janamat Party is a particularly interesting development as it pools the strengths of two parties with strongholds in different identity groups, with younger Madheshis plumping for the JSP while the Tharus support the NUP.