Kathmandu, Nepal, Dec 10, 2019: The government head Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-Chairperson Pushpakamal Dahal has exercised to perform the role of executive chairman of the party. As part of such an exercise, Dahal has called standing committee meeting of the party for December 15 amid uproar in the party rank and file on ranges of issues.
Holding the first secretariat meeting under his chairmanship, Dahal called the meeting of the Standing Committee (SC) with intent functionalizing the committees of the party. The NCP has called the meeting of the second powerful body after a gap of a year, thanks to the differences not only among the top leaders but also in the lower committees.
The scheduled standing committee meeting of the party is taken meaningfully as it has been called in the mean time when anger is brewing within the party on ranges of issues including the failure of the leadership to assign roles and responsibilities to party leaders.
The secretariat meeting was held on Monday at the party headquarters, Dhumbarahi, in the absence of another chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as he is taking rest following an appendectomy at the Maharajgunj-based Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center. Reliable source claims that Oi had given consent to hold the secretariat meeting but not to call the meeting of the standing committee within the short span of time.
No single meetings of the lower committees have been held since the party was formed merging then PN UML and after the merger of the then CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre). The lower committees of the party have been failing even to expand the party organization up to the party cadres, thanks to the expanded factional feud.
Though the Monday’s secretariat meeting instructed the party’s department chiefs to give a complete shape to their respective departments at the earliest, it is unlikely to do so thanks to the factional feud within the party, claim a leader of the party.
As the main opposition Nepali Congress become success to snatch some seats in the recently held by-elections including the provincial assembly seat from Bhaktapur 1 (a) and the post of mayor of Dharan Metropolitan City, the dissident leaders of the party have been pointing fingers over the performance of the leaders.
The dissident faction, particularly the faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal has been claiming that the reason behind the poor performance of the party was nothing than unpopularity of the government.
It is said that some second rung leaders have been raising serious question marks over the performance of the party leaders in the government and the party as well. The leaders have to answer that why the party and government is losing its influence even to keep intact the strongholds despite its strong presence in the federal, provincial parliaments and local governments, a stand committee member of the party said preferring anonymity.
