KATHMANDU, AUGUST 25

Co-chairpersons of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) — Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal — today accepted the 18-page report submitted by the six-member task force led by party General Secretary Bishnu Prasad Paudel.

According to Oli’s Press Adviser Surya Thapa, the two chairpersons held talks here today and fixed the date for the next Secretariat meeting on August 29 to discuss the task force report.

The task force has stated that Oli will remain the prime minister till the general election and will focus on governance, while Dahal will hold party meetings, implement party decisions and focus mainly on party affairs.

The task force also suggested that the party prepare for the first unity convention scheduled for April 7-12 on the basis of consensus.

Dahal’s personal aide Bishnu Sapkota said the task force report would be discussed in the party Secretariat and the Standing Committee.

NCP Standing Committee member Lilamani Pokharel said the task force report was just a suggestion and would be discussed in the Standing Committee. NCP’s internal feud intensified after the faction led by Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal asked Oli to quit either as PM or party co-chair, but PM Oli refused to oblige.

The Dahal-Nepal faction was compelled to reconcile its differences with Oli after they sensed that Oli could even split the party. Oli’s loyalists had repeatedly said the unity document between the erstwhile CPN-UML and CPN- MC was signed by two chairs — Oli and Dahal — and if one of them was forced to resign, then that would threaten party unity.

Leaders of the Dahal-Nepal faction had accused Oli of trying to split the party when he brought an ordinance amending the Political Party Act to allow 40 per cent members of the central committee or parliamentary party of a political party to split the party.

The ordinance was, however, withdrawn and currently party dissidents need 40 per cent support in both the central committee and parliamentary party.

The president, on recommendation of the PM, had to rescind the ordnance in the face of protests from leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties.

Should the Standing Committee adopt the task force report that will end the cold war within the party albeit for the time being, a reshuffle in federal and provincial cabinets might also happen to induct leaders close to Dahal and Nepal.

Standing Committee member Lilamani Pokharel said if the Cabinet had to be reshuffled, a policy decision would be taken by the Standing Committee.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 26, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.