KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 21

A day after President Bidhya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the rival factions of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by chairpersons Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal held separate meetings with the party’s lawmakers of the dissolved HoR today, as well as members of the National Assembly, intensifying efforts to retain the official party recognition.

Oli has called the party’s Central Committee meeting at 9:00am tomorrow to coincide with the meeting of the NCP Central Committee called by the party’s Standing Committee to discuss disciplinary action against him.

During his faction’s meeting today, Dahal said the party had already informed the Election Commission of the Standing Committee’s recommendation to take action against Oli for violating party discipline. He claimed that since his faction had two-thirds majority in the party, it would get the EC’s official recognition, Rekha Sharma, a member of the dissolved HoR told THT.

Dahal said political and legal steps would be taken to revive the HoR after consulting stakeholders and leaders of other parties.

He said the PM dissolved the HoR invoking wrong article of the constitution. He added that efforts would be made to convince leaders and cadres aligned with Oli to remain with the party’s mainstream.

NCP lawmaker in the National Assembly Ram Narayan Bidari, who attended the Dahal faction’s meeting, said leaders wanted to submit a petition to the president urging her to call the new session of Parliament.

The meeting also decided to condemn the president’s role in endorsing Oli’s recommendation to dissolve the House. According to Bidari, the parliamentary party of the NCP is likely to choose a new leader on Wednesday. NCP members of the dissolved HoR would also seek nullification of the dissolution of the HoR.

Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, who has been backing Oli in the intra-party feud, stayed away from meetings of both the factions. So did NCP Vice-chair Bamdev Gautam, although he condemned the PM’s decision to dissolve the HoR. He said meetings called by the two factions were a preparation to split the party and he being one of the architects of party unification couldn’t bear to witness the party split.