Kathmandu, April 27

In a bid to expedite the remaining tasks of merger of then CPN (UML) and erstwhile CPN-Maoist Centre, the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is all set to form its politburo in a day or two.

According to senior NCP leaders, the next central secretariat meeting, expected in a day or two, will name the party’s politburo members.

NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the secretariat will meet tomorrow or day after to name the 146-member politburo.

“The next meeting will form the politburo and discuss allocation of responsibilities to party leaders,” Shrestha said.

Party leaders had agreed to let the former UML have 81 politburo members and former CPN-MC to secure the remaining 65 members.

A party source said factional feuds still remained between party’s co-chair and PM KP Sharma Oli and senior leader Madhav Nepal on procedures to follow while naming politburo members.

“There is a dispute between the two factions on whether to incorporate all politburo members of the erstwhile UML in the new structure,” a leader said, adding that the Nepal faction wanted all 58 members of the erstwhile UML to be included in the NCP politburo.

Earlier, the NCP unification process had lingered for months due to factional feuds between the Oli and Nepal factions.Another Cochair Pushpa Kamal Dahal will be including all 19 central committee members of the then CPN-MC and 47 new members in the politburo.

The party must also finalise issues related to its sister wings.

As PM Oli plans to leave for Vietnam and Nepal for the US next month, the remaining tasks — division of responsibilities and finalisation of the structures of the NCP’s sister wings — will take more time.

Last week, NCP named former UML leaders as chiefs of 45 districts and former CPN-MC leaders as chiefs of 32 districts.