Kathmandu, July 28

Meeting of the central secretariat of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) scheduled for today to decide the names of the heads of various departments did not convene as its senior leaders demanded more time for doing necessary homework.

The co-chairs of the party Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Puspa Kamal Dahal have said that they needed more time to finalise the names of various department heads, according to a NCP leader. Oli and Dahal have been competing to appoint their close aides as the head of the School Department. Oli wants to appoint Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel and Dahal favours Narayan Kaji Shrestha for the post. Former CPN-Maoist Centre is not in favour of Pokharel because he advocates for people’s multi-party democracy as the ideology of the party.  People’s multi-party democracy was the party ideology of the former CPN-UML party.

The party has total 32 departments. As per the agreement between both the co-chairs, former CPN-UML will head 18 departments and CPN-Maoist Centre will get 14 departments. The party has tentatively decided on the names of the departments too, but the head of School Department remains undecided as leaders from both the factions are claiming the department.