KATHMANDU, JANUARY 14

Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal held its Standing Committee meeting and discussed ways to effectively carry out its protest programme against dissolution of the House of Representatives.

NCP (Dahal-Nepal) Spokesperson Naryan Kaji Shrestha said party leaders who were overseeing the protest related work and the taskforce formed under party Co-chair Madhav Kumar Nepal briefed the meeting about the progress they had made so far. “Based on these reports we will take some decisions tomorrow to make our protest against the dissolution of the House more effective,” said Shrestha.

He added the party could take some decisions about the party organisation but did not elaborate.

Standing Committee member Beduram Bhusal said one of the agenda had to do with taking more disciplinary actions against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and some other leaders.

When asked if that meant expulsion of those leaders from party membership, Bhusal said the final disciplinary action would certainly mean removal from party membership.

Nepal today said at a public programme that there was need to take further disciplinary action against PM Oli. Earlier, the NCP (Dahal-Nepal) Central Committee had removed Oli from the post of party co-chair for recommending dissolution of the HoR.

According to Standing Committee member Lilamani Pokharel, party leaders in today’s meeting said political parties, civil society, human rights activists, journalists and former chief justices were against dissolution of the HoR.

“Oli has no political reason to defend his decision to dissolve the Lower House.

He has been isolated on the issue. Nobody is defending his decision. That’s why he is using derogatory language against leaders of our faction,” said Pokharel.

Meanwhile, the Oli-led NCP also held an informal meeting attended by Standing Committee members available in Kathmandu valley.

Subas Chandra Nembang, who is close to Oli, said the PM directed party leaders to build momentum for the snap polls scheduled for April 30 and May 10. Nembang said the meeting did not take any decision as it was not a formal meeting of the Standing Committee.