About 200 activists from Nepal's opposition Maoist party have defected from the party and joined the ruling Communisty Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML).

CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal welcomed them in the party amidst a function at the party headquarters in Balkhu on Saturday (March 6).

The defectors are from Rukum, Pyuthan, Rolpa, Myagdi, Kavre and Kathmandu districts.

Khanal, on the occasion, praised them for joining the CPN-UML by shunning violence and said that all the leftists across the nation should move together in unity.

Saying the CPN-UML bears the responsibility of drafting the new constitution on time by concluding the peace process, Khanal opined that there was no alternative to moving forward in consensus.

Maoists had led a decade-long insurgency in Nepal before joining the mainstream politics in 2006. The Maoist party - official known as Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - is the largest political party in Nepal.