Kathmandu, May 23

Gopal Sharma, who was inducted in the Nepal Communist Party Central Committee from the erstwhile CPN-Maoist Centre, chose not to remain in the CC and recommended his colleague Basanta Sharma from Rukum to be inducted in his place.

Gopal is a Province 6 assembly member representing Rukum (B) constituency and is also chairperson of the erstwhile CPN-MC district chapter. He has also decided to hand over his district chief post to another colleague Mahendra KC.

Gopal came up with this idea so as to keep the party’s district organisation intact and manage dissatisfaction among leaders over their non-inclusion in the NCP CC. He has already informed the party high command, or the secretariat, about his decision.

“How can we run our organisation without giving any roles to key leaders?” he asked, referring to the inclusion of Tek Bahadur Balampaki in the CC and his senior Mahendra KC who was not included. Both the leaders had returned to CPN-MC from the Netra Bikram Chand-led Nepal Communist Party.

“We can continue to be leaders only if we have a robust organisation. Leaders should be assigned roles and responsibilities in an appropriate way. Since the leadership has failed to do so, we are doing it ourselves,” Gopal told THT.

Discontent is rife among NCP leaders, from both the constituents — CPN-MC and CPN-UML — over their non-inclusion in the CC. They have charged that the leadership of favouring only their near and dear ones while selecting members of the CC.

Some leaders from the UML who are dissatisfied include Rajendra Rai, Basanta Kumar Nembang, Ganesh Prasai, Saresh Nepal, Hasta Pandit, Krishna Prasad Dahal, Keshav Pandey, Krishna Thapa, Rajiv Pahari, Damodar Bhandari and Dil Bahadur Singh. These leaders are considered close to the Prime Minister and NCP Co-Chair KP Sharma Oli.

Leaders close to Madhav Kumar Nepal have also expressed dissatisfaction. They include Rajendra Prakash Lohani, Urbadatta Panta, Subash Karmacharya, Guru Burlakoti and Krishna Lal Maharjan.

Lawmakers Krishna Bhakta Pokharel and former lawmaker Rewati Raman Bhandari, from the UML, are also discontented at being left out of the CC. Dissatisfied leaders from the CPN-MC are Ram Prasad Banjade, Suryaman Dong, Ram Chandra Sharma, Jhalkpani Tiwari, Shree Krishna Adhikari, Chandra Bahadur Khadka, Ramesh Malla, Raj Kumar Shrestha, Bil Bahadur Rayamajhi, Saral Poudel, Chandra Bahadur Thapa, Tanka Rai, Shree Prasad Jagebu, Aman lal Modi, Paras Mani Poudel, Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, Niru Darlami, Meena Tamang and Devendra Shrestha.

According to a disgruntled NCP leader, this situation arose due to the leadership’s failure to conduct proper study before finalising the CC members, resulting in juniors being inducted in the CC and seniors being left out.

The disgruntled leaders have been expressing dissatisfaction against Co-chairpersons Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal in social media platforms.

Both the co-chairmen are facing serious challenge addressing displeasure among leaders across the country. So much so that senior leader and former prime minister Jhalanath Khanal has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the selection members of the central committee and standing committee.

An NCP Secretariat member and Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the leaders’ dissatisfaction will be addressed gradually, and they will be assigned appropriate roles at the appropriate time. Shrestha told THT “There were several capable leaders who have been left out, they should be tolerant for the sake of party unification.”

Oli and Madhav Kumar Nepal have recommended four leaders for the standing committee in addition to 22 standing committee members of the erstwhile UML.

The newly-recommended members include Bishnu Rimal, Raghuji Panta, Raghubir Mahaseth and Beduram Bhusal. However, Dahal has yet to finalise 19 standing committee members from the CPN-MC.

NPC has called the first meeting of its 441-member central committee meeting tomorrow at the prime ministers’ residence in Baluwatar. The meeting will brief the CC members about their roles and responsibilities, and also collect their citizenship copies to submit to the Election Commission for party registration.