• Chairman Baidhya postpones central committee meeting for a month

Kathmandu, April 9

Even as more than 90 per cent members of the party’s central committee spoke in favour of unity in the party and among like-minded Maoist parties, the fate of CPN Revolutionary Maoist now rests on the decision of party chairman Mohan Baidhya.

“Now it’s up chairman Baidhya whether to keep the party intact or let it split,” said Lekhnath Neupane, an influential youth leader of the party.

If Baidhya refused to consider general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa’s proposal to sort out differing views through the unity convention, the party cannot avoid an imminent split.

Neupane said Baidhya even refused to accept Thapa’s proposal to sort out all the outstanding issues through unity convention and today issued a circular saying the ongoing central committee meeting of the party had been postponed for a month.

Backed by leaders of newly merged CPN-Unified and party vice-chairman CP Gajurel, Chairman Baidhya has been refusing to address the concerns raised by a large number of central members.

“It seems that leadership is trying to buy time to cover up its failure to take a decision,” Neupane said.

Thapa had told Baidhya that he would take all his proposals back if the latter agreed to settle the issues through unity convention. But Baidhya is for settling the issues through the party’s national conference. The top leaders have been claiming that unity would not be possible without the other parties accepting the CPN-RM’s political line but young generation leaders led by General Secretary Thapa have been trying to convince them saying results were more important as political line could be finalised through thorough discussions during the unity convention.

Neupane had been trying to ensure party unity first before going for broader unity among like-minded Maoist parties.

Thapa has begun a signature campaign in favour of his 14-point proposal, which created a huge moral pressure on the leadership to accept his proposal.

However, pro-Baidhya leaders have claimed that the ongoing central committee meeting was postponed for a month, citing necessity of further discussion on the issues.

Leaders commented that entry of CPN-Unified in the party was leading the CPN-RM to split.

Sources claimed that Chairman Mohan Baidhya was against becoming ‘politically impure’ by joining the Unified CPN-Maoist that, according to him, has already lost the spirit of a communist party in a true sense.