KATHMANDU, JANUARY 9

Vice-chair of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Bamdev Gautam, who has not joined any of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) factions led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli or Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Kumar Nepal, today issued an appeal calling on party cadres and leader to stand in favour of party unity.

Gautam issued the appeal as NCP Unity National Campaign coordinator to save party unity.

He said the party suffered a split not because of party leaders’ differences on major political issues and strategies but on account of power sharing issues and that was reflective of leaders’ failure to run the party.

Gautam blamed both Oli and Dahal for the sorry state of the party saying that it was wrong on the part of Dahal to bring a no-trust motion against PM Oli and it was also wrong on the part of Oli to dissolve the HoR without facing the no-trust motion or resigning as the party’s Parliamentary Party leader.

Although Dahal stated in his release that his faction had registered the no-trust motion against PM Oli, the faction’s leaders had not moved such a motion till the time the PM had recommended the HoR dissolution to the president.

Without naming the prime minister, Gautam said the House of Representatives was dissolved as a consequence of the NCP intra-party feud and it was unfortunate that the entire country had to suffer because of the intra-party feud in the ruling party.

“Today, Nepal’s Communist movement is in a state of crisis.

This circumstance is pushing the country’s communist force into division,” Gautam remarked, adding, “In a historic achievement, Nepal Communist Party formed the government by garnering almost twothirds majority through a democratic process. However, it is sad to witness the party moving towards division even before completion of three years of party unification and prior to the government completing its first term.”

Gautam stated that unification between the two communist forces — one that was present at the centre of national politics through peaceful struggles for four decades and the other that came to the fore after ten years of armed struggle — had added a new dimension to Nepal’s political scenario. “It is but natural that amalgamation of both sides would have its challenges owing to different schools of thought, feelings, and style of work. But this would be less of a challenge once both the sides accepted the political system of putting first the constitution, rule of law, and the approach of multi-party democracy.”

Gautam has appealed to all cadres and leaders associated with both Oli and Dahal-Nepal led NCP to stop fighting and reconstitute the party. He also urged party cadres and leaders to resolve contradictions in a respectable manner as per the party system.

“I stand in front of you, without supporting either of the groups, with the sincere plea to save the party’s unity,” Gautam said in his release.

Gautam urged party leaders and cadres to join his campaign and convince those that oppose party unity to stand in favour of party unity. Gautam also urged communist cadres to propagate the message of party unity by distributing pamphlets and occasionally bringing out rallies ensuring social distancing rules.

The ruling NCP suffered a vertical split on December 22 after Prime Minister Oli recommended the dissolution of House of Representatives on December 20. The recommendation was swiftly approved by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and what followed was the announcement of mid-term elections in April-May 2021.