• Parliament Sectt told not to recognise Oli as NCP parliamentary party leader

• Dahal to be elected PP leader today

KATHMANDU, MARCH 4

The Nepal Communist Party (NCP) faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal today wrote a letter to secretary general of Parliament urging him not to recognise Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as the parliamentary party leader of the ruling party.

The letter signed by Dahal also urged the secretary general not to deem valid any correspondence made by KP Sharma Oli or anyone else claiming to be the parliamentary party leader.

Dahal said since the party had removed Oli as leader of the parliamentary party and even from general membership of the party, he could not continue to be recognised as the parliamentary party leader.

Dahal wrote that the party took action against Oli for violating party discipline by deciding to dissolve the House of Representatives.

Dahal also stated that as per the NCP statute, the parliamentary party would have to form a task force to expel any lawmaker and only as per the recommendation of such a task force can any lawmaker be expelled from the House and the same must be endorsed by the Central Committee.

The Dahal-Nepal faction has majority in the NCP Central Committee.

National Assembly lawmaker Ram Narayan Bidari, who is close to Dahal, told THT that as per the NCP party statute and NCP parliamentary party statute, the party controlled the parliamentary party. This means that the parliamentary party leader and the parliamentary party are required to follow the party's directives, he added.

Bidari, who is a senior advocate, said while the Election Commission had the jurisdiction to settle the party's legitimacy dispute, the Parliament had the jurisdiction to settle the row relating to the parliamentary party leader.

He said the NCP had already decided to make Dahal the new parliamentary party leader and tomorrow's meeting of the parliamentary party would officially elect Dahal as the new parliamentary party leader. He said the Parliament Secretariat could do the headcount to determine whether or not Dahal commanded majority in the parliamentary party.

NCP lawmaker Jeevan Ram Shrestha, who registered Dahal's letter to the Parliament Secretariat and Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota's office, said his party expected the Parliament Secretariat to prevent Oli from working as NCP PP leader.

He said Subas Chandra Nembang and four other lawmakers who were suspended by the party yesterday could not represent the NCP in the parliamentary party as disciplinary action resulting in their suspension was taken by the party's Central Committee.

The Dahal-Nepal faction had yesterday suspended Nembang from the party's Standing Committee for six months for violating party discipline.

The faction had also suspended Bishal Bhattarai, Prabhu Shah, Shanta Chaudhary, and Mahesh Basnet from the Central Committee for six months for violating party discipline.

Shrestha said the Dahal-Nepal faction today informed the Election Commission of the disciplinary action taken against seven leaders yesterday.

The Election Commission is yet to decide which of the two factions of the ruling party is authentic. The Dahal-Nepal faction claims majority in all the bodies of the NCP - Secretariat, Standing Committee, Central Committee, and the parliamentary party.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 5, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.