Nepali Congress, NC-D to unite, announcement tomorrow

Kathmandu, Sep 24 (UNI) Nepali Congress-Democratic(NC-D) will merge with its parent party -- the Nepali Congress(NC), after several attempts over the past few years for unification.

NC-D President Sher Bahadur Deuba today said only some ''technical issues'' regarding the unification were to be settled and a formal announcement would be made tomorrow, Kantipur online reported.

''Owing to some technical issues, the announcement of unification has been put off for tomorrow,'' he said.

He told reporters that a meeting of the top leaders of both the parties will be held tomorrow morning to sort out the outstanding issues and a joint Maha Samiti meeting would be called in the afternoon to make a formal announcement.

The NC Maha Samiti meeting, which started yesterday at NC headquarters Sanepa, Lalitpur, has been postponed till today afternoon in the wake of the unification process.

Post-unification, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will be the party president.

Founder member of the Nepali Congress Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Mr Deuba will not be holding any posts in the party but will serve as senior leaders.

Mr Deuba met Prime Minister Koirala at his official residence to finalise the unification process.

NC-D was formed about five years ago after some NC leaders decided to split from the mother party.

UNI