One-on-one meeting of NCP co-chairs postponed

KATHMANDU, JULY 9

The much anticipated one-onone meeting between co-chairs of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal did not take place today.

Deputy Parliamentary Party leader of NCP Subas Chandra Nembang, who is close to PM Oli, told THT that though one-to-one meeting between Oli and Dahal did not take place today, both the leaders were talking to each other over phone about the issues raised in the Standing Committee meeting. Most of the Standing Committee members have asked the PM to quit at least one out of the two posts he holds—prime minister and party co-chair. Nembang also said other leaders close to Oli and Dahal were also holding talks to find a way out of the current stalemate in the party.

The standing committee member Haribol Gajurel, who is close to Dahal, told THT that the two leaders had gone too far to crirticise each other and therefore, the current stalemate continued. “But there is no option than to reconcile their differences,” he said and added that if Oli was asked to resign from the post of the prime minister, that could affect governance not only at the centre but all three levels of the government and could invite national crisis.

“If the party splits, no party will have enough majority to form the next government.

Moving a no trust motion against the PM is not desirable because the party that would want to form a new government would have to depend on other parties and other parties could withdraw their support to the new government at anytime,” Gajurel added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 10, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.