NINE left parties in Nepal have agreed to merge to form a new Nepali Communist Party (NCP), it was reported on Wednesday.

People’s Dispatch reports that the decision taken in Kathmandu on Tuesday may boost the prospects for the left in next March’s national elections.

The parties joining the merger are the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN — Maoist Centre), led by former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda,” the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) led by Madhav Kumar Nepal, the Nepal Socialist Party, the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, CPN (Maoist Socialist), CPN (Samyabadi), CPN (Communist) and CPN (Revolutionary Maoist).

The new party held its first national convention on Wednesday during which he elected a new central committee and declared that it will follow Marxist-Leninist principles with a political programme focusing on scientific socialism with “Nepali characteristics.”

The NCP said its main objectives will be to achieve economic prosperity and good governance.

CPN (Maoist Centre) leader and former home and foreign minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha said on Tuesday that the new party will attempt to anticipate and address the concerns of “Gen Z.”

The so-called Gen Z protests took place in September. In these protests, scores of people were killed and several national institutions (such as the parliament building) were torched.

The protests forced the resignation of then prime minister KP Sharma Oli who was heading a coalition government made up of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist and the Nepali Congress.

Nepal is currently ruled by a caretaker government under the leadership of former chief justice Sushila Karki which decided to hold national elections next March 5.

But Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha denied that the formation of a unified communist party was focused on March elections.

He said the new party was a result of a process which began before the protests in September which helped to speed up the process.