KATHMANDU, JULY 7
The CPN-Maoist Centre today formed a 156-member politburo and 41-member standing committee.
The central committee meeting of the party formed the politburo and standing committee, but failed to name office bearers as party Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal sought more time to prepare the list of standing committee members.
Dahal proposed the names of politburo and standing committee members. All top leaders -- Dahal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Dev Prasad Gurung, Janardan Sharma, Barshaman Pun, and Haribol Gajurel -- are members of the politburo and the standing committee.
Initially, Dahal had proposed 125-member politburo, but as some CC members raised objections, saying the party chair nominated politburo members without following any criteria, Dahal added 31 alternative members to the politburo.
Narayan Kaji Shrestha said there was confusion about the names of politburo members as Dahal mistakenly read out the names from a raw draft. Shrestha said the CC meeting had finalised 15 members of the standing committee and would name the remaining 26 members soon.
CPN-MC leader Giriraj Mani Pokharel said Dahal added names after some leaders pointed out that senior leaders and leaders from provinces were not included in the politburo.
Asked if Dahal used his own discretion to name members in the politburo and the standing committee, Pokharel said Dahal had the party leaders' faith and had named members of party bodies in accordance with the party's eighth general convention. "We had elected party leaders in the general convention on the basis of consensus. This time too we have selected members of top bodies of the party on the basis of consensus," he said.
He said the party would soon name office bearers as well.
Dahal announced in the CC meeting today that Narayan Kaji Shrestha would be the senior vice-chair of the party.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
