Kathmandu, June 1

Amidst increasing intra-party rift in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), its central secretariat meeting scheduled for Monday will be finalising the names of in-charges and co-in-charges of the party’s district committees.

Even one year after the two communist parties — the then CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre — merged, the unification process has not been completed.

According to an NCP source, the party’s most powerful nine-member central secretariat has prepared the list of in-charges and coin-charges of all 77 district committees.

“But, all the names will be discussed between party’s two Co-chairs, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal tomorrow and they will make the final decision.

Monday’s central secretariat meeting will announce the names of in-charges and co-in-charges of the districts committees,” a senior leader said.

According to him, the criteria for naming the in-charges and co-in-charges of the party’s district committees has already been set. “If the in-charge is selected from the then CPN- UML, co-in-change will be member of the then CPN-Maoist Centre and vice-versa,” he said. Seniority of leaders will also be considered for head ing the committees, he added.

The party had already announced chairs and secretaries of all the district committees.

Another major challenge facing the merger is factional rift in the leadership.

KP Oli, Dahal and another senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal are competing to appoint their aides in the committees and other important posts.

The party is yet to form its sister wings including a Madhes Committee.

The party is finalising a 147-member politburo. The party’s eight central agencies are yet to be formed.

The provincial council and relation coordination committee are also yet to be formed.

The party is working to form international coordination committee as well.

Inter-party wrangling has already surfaced among Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, senior leader Bam Dev Gautam and General Secretary Bishnu Poudel, with each of them claiming leadership of the organisation department, the most powerful department of the party.

The central secretariat meeting was supposed to be held today. But the two cochairs were occupied with their daily schedules. So, the party has scheduled its meeting two days later.

According to some party leaders, the party’s top leaders have been avoiding informal talks.

Bishnu Rijal, a central committee member said “Top leaders should hold informal talks as that helps in forging consensus.”