KATHMANDU, JULY 19

Co-chair of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal today told party leaders, including senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, that he had not sealed a secret deal with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on holding the party’s special general convention in November.

Dahal had to come clean, as Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal and Narayan Kaji Shrestha grew suspicious about his intention when he brought up the issue along with Oli in the Secretariat meeting yesterday. Some leaders close to Nepal had reached Dahal’s residence to enquire about the special GC.

“I merely intended to discuss whether we could hold special general convention in November.

I have not reached any understanding with Oli on this issue.

This will be decided by the party,” NCP Standing Committee member Yubaraj Gyawali quoted Dahal as saying.

Dahal also came clean about his meeting with President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, along with Oli, party General Secretary Bishnu Paudel, Province 5 Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel and Janardan Sharma.

According to Standing Committee member Beduram Bhusal, Dahal told party leaders that he had no prior information about the meeting with the president. The President’s Office has not confirmed the meeting.

Gyawali said holding special GC would be almost impossible given the tasks to be completed in the run-up to the convention. “Oli, who is under pressure to quit either the post of the PM or party chair, floated the idea of special convention in an attempt to buy time and ultimately win over those leaders who have asked him to step down,” Gyawali said. He said the PM knew the special GC could not be held within the next four months. He floated the idea so that he could cling on to power for another four months. “After four months, the PM can easily say that the GC cannot be held within such a short time,” Gyawali said.

Another Standing Committee member, Asta Laxmi Shakya, however, said Dahal told party leaders that he had gone to the president’s office yesterday to discuss crucial party issues.

He said he had done that before also, but would refrain from doing so again.

Shakya said the president was above party politics and should refrain from discussing ruling party’s issues. “Everybody is raising questions about the president’s involvement in the party’s key decisions. Party leaders should also avoid meeting the president to discuss party issues,” Shakya said.

She added that if the president continued to discuss party issues, that would set a bad precedent and tarnish the image of the president.

Shakya said the PM’s proposal to hold the GC was his latest move to outsmart those who had asked him to quit both the post of prime minister and party co-chair. She said the PM could end the current deadlock in the party if he agreed to quit at least one post to respect the party’s statute that stipulated that one leader should hold only one key post in a party.

Shakya said if Oli wanted to hold the GC, he should bring it as an official proposal in the Standing Committee. He said the repeated postponement of the Standing Committee undermined the dignity of the party and party leaders should not postpone the ongoing Standing Committee meeting anymore.

Meanwhile, the NCP postponed its Standing Committee meeting till Tuesday.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 20, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.