KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 12

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who co-chair’s the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), has called the party’s Secretariat meeting for tomorrow a day after the Supreme Court cleared decks for Bamdev Gautam to become a minister. Till yesterday, Oli had been arguing against immediate need for calling the meeting.

Gautam is one of the five members of the NCP Secretariat, besides Dahal, Shrestha, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, who had asked Oli in writing to call the Secretariat meeting last week and attend it.

But the PM ignored the call. Dahal then met Oli on Tuesday and asked him to agree to his decision to call the Secretariat meeting today.

Oli has fallen into minority in all key party bodies — Secretariat, Standing Committee and Central Committee. But if Gautam switches sides tomorrow, Oli may be in majority in at least the Secretariat.

Leaders of the Dahal faction, however, ruled out that Gautam would switch sides.

NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said party General Secretary and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel fixed the meeting for 4:00 pm tomorrow on the direction of Executive Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the PM agreed for the meeting.

The new development comes after weeks of political sabre rattling between Oli and Dahal factions of the NCP. The Dahal faction has accused the PM of defying the party’s Standing Committee decisions by unilaterally reshuffling the federal Cabinet, making appointments in constitutional bodies, nominating ambassadors and inciting party leaders to register a no-trust motion against Karnali Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi.

Oli, on the other hand, had threatened to split the party if the rival faction took any step to censure him in any party body.

NCP Standing Committee member Yubaraj Gyawali, who is close to senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, told THT that the PM’s nod to call the Secretariat meeting was a positive step, but differences still remained in the party over a host of issues which would be debated in the Secretariat tomorrow. “It depends on how Oli presents himself in the meeting tomorrow. If he agrees to abide by party decisions, things could be resolved easily or else members may take decisions on the basis of majority,” he said He added that Oli defied party rules even when he was associated with the erstwhile CPN- UML. “He would walk out of meetings when he did not like certain things. Ignoring party bodies’ meetings is his old habit,” Gyawali said.

The NCP Secretariat will discuss COVID-19 crisis, non-compliance with the party’s Standing Committee decisions, intra-party rift in Karnali Province and the PM’s recent meeting with chief of Research and Analysis Wing of India Samant Kumar Goel.