KATHMANDU: A meeting of the Council of Ministers held today has decided to recommend revoking of two ordinances that were recently issued by the government, and authenticated by the President.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari, on April 20, in accordance with Article 114 (1) of the Constitution, endorsed ‘Constitutional Council (function, duties, rights and procedure) first amendment, Ordinance, 2077’ and the ‘Political Party (second amendment) Ordinance, 2077’.

The ordinance related to Political Party Act amends the provision of the act allowing leaders of a political party to split the party if they have   40 per cent support either in the central committee or the parliamentary party. The current provisions of the Political Party Act mandate leaders of a political party to have 40 per cent members of the central committee and parliamentary party on their side to split the party.

Oli-government, with the issuance, and the Office of the President, with the endorsement of the two ordinances had invited criticisms from all quarters, including from within the ruling party.

It has now decided to recommend the President to repeal the ordinances.

The Prime Minister's 'miscalculated' move triggered a series of dramatic events that kept the government, and by default the media and the people, occupied with concerns other than coronavirus crisis management - while the latter should have been the numero uno priority.

While the government's hasty decision led to days-long split-unification episode on play, even making way for extreme allegations such as  'kidnapping' of lawmaker by government aides - dissent was brewing within the ruling party itself.

Rift was widening between the PM and co-chair of NCP, over the formation of an all-party mechanism to deal with COVID-19 threat. Dahal recently proposed forming an all-party mechanism to deal with the threat of COVID-19 pandemic, incurring the wrath of Oli.

The Dahal faction, in the aftermath of the issuance of the ordinances, interpreted Oli’s decision as a bid to split the party in case the Dahal faction tries to censure him. “Oli may have brought the ordinance to give the message that party leaders, including the Dahal faction, could form another party if they could not remain united in the party,” a source close to Dahal had told THT on condition of anonymity.

Oli took the unprecedented step also to make it easy for the dissidents of other political parties to form their splinter parties.

With the government now backtracking from its earlier decision, it is a wait-and-watch situation on whether or not the fissures between the factions would heal with time.

Meanwhile, speculations run rife over what the government would do to undo the damages it has caused to its image by means of its bemausami baja (PM had panned his critics for playing music at odd hours lately) coming back to haunt itself.