Kathmandu, June 6

Central secretariat meeting of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) held for appointing district in-charges and co-in-charges of the party concluded indecisively, for the third consecutive day today. Intra-party rift between party Co-chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has stalled the appointment process.

Regular meeting of the party secretariat from June 4 to 6 has failed to appoint district in-charges and co-incharges as senior leaders remained divided on the modality of appointing party leaders to party posts.

Senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and his faction is for one-person-one-post provision. They have been demanding that a guideline based on one-person-one-post provision be drafted before initiating the process to appoint district in-charges and co-in-charges.

Party Co-chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his faction has been opposing the proposal stating the provision of one-person-onepost was irrelevant as it was not followed while appointing province in-charges and co-in-charges, and districts chairs.

According to a NCP source, another Co-chair Puspa Kamal Dahal has apparently remained neutral in the meetings but has been tacitly supporting the Nepal faction.

Even one year after the two communist parties, the then CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre, merged, the unification process remains incomplete.

Spokesperson for the party Narayan Kaji Shrestha said discussions were held on the guidelines to appoint leaders to the party committees during the secretariat meetings.

The discussion dwelt on whether ministers or lawmakers should head the posts of party committees.

Next meeting of the secretariat would be held after PM Oli’s Europe visit. PM Oli will embark on an eight-day Europe visit, on June 8.

Both Co-chairs, Oli and Dahal have said they needed more time to do homework on appointing heads of party committees, according to Shrestha.

A leader close to Nepal told THT that if the party did not follow one-person-one-post system, almost all the committees will be hijacked by the Oli faction as most of the leaders from his faction already held high profile position in the party.

Intra-party rift between Oli and Nepal factions has stalled the appointment of in-charges and co-in-charges in the districts and formation of other departments of the party.

“The delay to form committees and in awarding responsibilities to party leaders has direct impact on the functioning of the party in a democratic manner.

The party has been unable to expand its organisation at grassroots level,”said Deepak Prakash Bhatta, a central committee member.