Kathmanndu, Nepal, August 4, 2020: Intra-party dispute of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has shown no sign of coming closer to an end at anytime soon. As rounds of bilateral and trilateral meetings held at this time around including the recent one Monday’s meeting held between party’s chairman duo-Pushpa Kamal Dahal and KP Sharma Oli ended inconclusively, the prospects of consensus seem to have reached far-away.
The one-to-one talk between the co-chairs held at Prime Minister KP Oli’s official resident, Baluwatar, ended inconclusively after they differ over whether to call the party’s secretariat meeting as demanded by Oli or the standing committee meeting as demanded by Dahal to resolve the ongoing differences of the party.
Though the faction war within the ruling head NCP was not a new, the party has reached at the verge to the vertical split after rival faction led by Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has asked Oli to quit either as prime minister or party co-chair.
The faction led by Oli, however, is adamant on hanging on to both the posts. The debate over the issue of division of posts among the leaders of the ruling head NCP has pushed not only the party towards the vertical split but also jeopardized the activities of the government.
During the meeting, executive chairman Dahal demanded immediate call of standing committee meeting, which was unilaterally put off on July 28. However, Oli, who is also the Prime Minister, denied to call the standing committee meeting insisting for calling the secretariat meeting to resolve the differences.
As Oli led faction has managed to turn the table on Dahal led dissident faction in the secretariat committee, he has been insisting for the secretariat meeting to resolve the internal rift of the party. Earlier, Dahal led faction had the majority in the nine-member secretariat. Oli led faction, however, managed majority at the secretariat by stealing party vice-chair Bamdev Gautam and Ram Bahadur Thapa.
Dahal led faction is backed by former Prime Ministers duo Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal, and party’s spokesperson Narayenkaji Shrestha while Oli led faction is backed by Deputy Prime Minister Ishowr Pokhrel, Bishnu Poudel, who is also the general secretary of the party, including Gautam and Thapa.
The ruling NCP has entered on the new form of debate over whether to call the standing committee or secretariat to resolve the internal rift of the party. Dahal led faction has a stand that it would be inappropriate to call the secretariat meeting as the standing committee meeting, which was called after the end of the secretariat, is yet to be over.
As many as 152 central members of the party have already demanded a meeting of the Central Committee after standing committee failed to reach on conclusion over the internal rift of the party.
Dahal led faction holds majorities both in the standing committee and the central committee. Dahal has forwarded a demand that central committee meeting has to be called even if the ongoing standing committee meeting failed to reach on the conclusion over the issue of differences of the party.
