Kathmandu, Nepal: With the formation of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), internal differences have marred the party, thanks to the failure to give appropriate positions to the senior leaders of the erstwhile CPN UML and the CPN Maoist Center.
Some leaders including party’s senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal, who was the former General Secretary and prime Minister of erstwhile UML and now is a member of the NCP secretariat, has taken serious exception to his demotion in the party hierarchy.
As current ranking of the NCP has put Khanal behind Madhav Kumar Nepal, he has demanded to reinstate him into his former position citing the reason that ninth General Convention of the UML had accorded him as the second-most senior leader putting ahead of Nepal in the ranking.
Khanal has a claim that he was kept in dark not only about his position but also about the date that the UML and Maoist Center had merged. It is said that Khanal was in China for treatment on the day the two parties were merged.
Not only Khanal but also Ishwor Pokharel and Bhim Rawal, who were General Secretary and vice president respectively of the erstwhile UML, have also expressed their serious displeasure claiming that their seniority was not respected while merging the two parties.
As Rawal is not appointed even a member in the NCP Secretariat, he had met party co-chair KP Oli to express his dissatisfaction. Though Pokharel has not spoken publicly against of the decision, he is not satisfied for not being offered the post of General Secretary. Bishnu Paudel, who is considered as the close confident of Oli, was appointed as the General Secretary of the NCP.
Not only are the leaders of the erstwhile UML but also the Maoist Center are also not satisfied with the ranking in the CPN. It is said that Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Ram Bahadur Thapa are dissatisfied with their ranks in the CPN. Though Shrestha wanted to be a General Secretary of the NCP, he has been named as spokesperson while Thapa wants to be above of Ishwor Pokharel in rank.
It is likely that the differences would widen after expansion of the 441-member central committee and 45-member standing committee of the NCP as some aspirants, who are excluded in the committees’ members, have said that party co-chairs have misused their power by including their nearer and dearer without paying heads to the seniority and contribution made to the party.
