Kathmandu, July 13

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is least likely to reshuffle his Cabinet anytime soon as the top leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) are busy working on concluding the unification process of the two communist parties — the then CPN- UML and CPN-Maoist Centre, according to senior leaders.

The then CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre were merged to form the NCP in May 2018, but the work division and appointments of chiefs of the different departments as well as the powerful 147 politburo in the NCP have not been finalised yet.

Central Committee member of NCP Devendra Paudel said Cabinet reshuffle would not take place until the remaining tasks of the unification process were completed.

“The party’s senior leaders, including co-chairs of the party Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal have prioritised concluding the unification process over Cabinet reshuffle,” Paudel , who is close to Dahal, told THT.

Amid criticism of the government’s dismal performance, NCP’s Co-chair Dahal had publicly said the Oliled Cabinet would be reshuffled soon.

“Oli has deferred his plan to reshuffle the Cabinet for sometime following discussions with senior leaders, including Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal,” a standing committee member close to Oli told THT.

According to him, the two co-chairs and General Secretary Bishnu Paudel have been working on finalising the merger process internally.

The party has already prepared a framework to appoint in-charges and co-incharges in all 77 districts.

“The party will delegate the responsibilities of in-charges and co-in-charges to the chairpersons and secretaries of the then CPN-UML and the then CPN-Maoist Centre,” he added.

In-charges and co-incharges of the party will be office bearers of the old parties.

The then CPN-UML will hold the post of in-charges in 45 districts and the then Maoist Centre will get the post of co-in-charges in 32 districts.

In districts where CPN- UML gets the post of in-charges, Maoist Centre will get the post of co-incharges, and vice-versa.

“Announcement of district in-charges and co-in-charges will take place once senior leader of the party Madhav Nepal arrives from Sir Lanka.

Nepal is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and he will hold a meeting with two co-chairs of the party,” said Bishnu Rijal, a central committee member and a leader close to Nepal, adding that ‘one person, one post’ policy wouldn’t be implemented this time.

Earlier this week, the conflict between the leaders from the erstwhile Maoist Centre and CPN-UML regarding the new party’s ideology was settled after the two co-chairs agreed to publish a political document prepared by the Nepal-led committee.

The temporary political ideology of NCP will now be ‘people’s democracy’ until the first general convention of the party.