KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9

The establishment faction of the CPN-UML led by former prime minister KP Sharma Oli held its central committee meeting and endorsed the party statute amendment proposal prepared by the party's standing committee.

According to Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, who is the spokesperson for the party, statute amendment proposal proposes to elect party chair through the votes of General Convention representatives and other office bearers through the central committee. Similar approach has been proposed for lower committees as well.

Gyawali told mediapersons today that the party proposed to go for a new structure as electing all office bearers of the party committees created confusion about the jurisdictions of the elected office bearers.

The establishment faction will send the new proposal to lower committees for their feedback, which will be presented in the party statute convention.

The central committee also decided to hold the party statute convention on September 12 and 13.

Gyawali said that leaders also proposed to have the central committee, politburo and a party secretariat in place of the standing committee.

The proposal also proposes to have a 225-member central committee, one chairperson, two vice-chairpersons, one general secretary, two deputy general secretaries and seven secretaries.

In response to a journalist's query, Gyawali said that the establishment faction accepted the Madhav Kumar Nepal-Jhalanath Khanal faction's demand that party committees that existed before the CPN-UML's merger with the CPN-MC should be revived, yet Nepal was not ready to reconcile differences with the establishment faction.

He said Nepal wanted to be the second chairperson of the party and when party Chair KP Sharma Oli accepted that demand too, Nepal rejected the offer saying he was being projected as greedy for party posits.

There is no love lost between the two UML factions and the Nepal-Khanal faction continues to boycott the establishment faction's meeting.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 10 2021, of The Himalayan Times.