Kathmandu, Nepal, March 9, 2021: The Standing Committee meeting of the Dahal-Nepal faction of the erstwhile Nepal Communist Party (NCP) held at Perisdanda on Monday transformed into farewell meeting after leaders concluded to be part of their respective mother party- CPN UML and the CPN (Maoist Center) as per the Sunday’s Supreme Court (SC) verdict.
Though the Dahal-Nepal faction of the erstwhile NCP had called Standing Committee meeting to chalk out strategy against the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his led faction, it was not entered into formal procedure but transformed into informal one to take a decision over the SC order. The intense debate among the leaders had concluded to abide the SC order and to be part of their respective mother party.
Responding to a writ petition filed on behalf of the Rishi Kattel, a joint bench of justices Kumar Regmi and Bam Kumar Shrestha had issued the verdict giving authenticity of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to him as he had already registered the party at the Election Commission (EC) with the same name prior to the formation of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) under the leadership of Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal in May 2018.
As lawmakers may lose their posts if they chose to be part of party other than the one they originally belonged to during the election, the leaders of the Dahal-Nepal faction of the erstwhile NCP concluded to be part of their respective mother party. The lawmakers and leaders of the erstwhile NCP had been dividing into rival factions -one was led by Oli while another was led by Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Dozens of UML leaders and lawmakers including Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal are with the Dahal while CPN-Maoist Centre lawmakers Ram Bahadur Thapa, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Lekhraj Bhatta and Prabhu Shah are with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Though the leaders decided to be part of the mother parties, review petition is also likely against the SC verdict that nullified the unification of the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre to form NCP (NCP).
The leaders had a conclusion that SC verdict made going beyond the demand of the petitioner to clear the confusion about the party’s name should be reviewed. However, they had made no decision to file the writ demanding review in the verdict. The erstwhile CPN UML and the CPN Maoist Center would not have revived if the SC had passed the verdict allowing both the parties to register with a different name.
