Kathmandu, November 23

The ongoing secretariat meeting of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has picked names for members of the provincial committees on the basis of the criteria set by a two-member task force recently.

NCP (NCP) member Narayan Kaji Shrestha told The Himalayan Times that the meeting selected names for provincial committees and those names would be presented to the Standing Committee for endorsement.

He said if anyone of them was later found to be not meeting the criteria, then his/her name be removed. Shrestha, however, said more or less the names that were selected today would be finalised.

Speaking to mediapersons after the secretariat meeting, Shrestha said the meeting did not discuss the memorandum submitted by 22 members of the Central Committee on Wednesday. He said tomorrow’s secretariat meeting would discuss allocation of responsibilities to party leaders. “We want to settle organisational issues before we discuss the government’s performance,” Shrestha said. He said the secretariat meeting also decided to form a special provincial committee to look after the work of special district committees formed in the capital.

Another secretariat member Jhalanath Khanal said there would be 150 members on an average in the provincial committees depending on the population of the provinces. In some provincial committees, there could be 100 to 122 members, Khanal said.

The secretariat meeting, however, did not strip Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung and Province 5 Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel of their   responsibilities of provincial chiefs as demanded by  Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of the party.

Pokharel and Gurung are confidants of party Co-chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Nepal faction has opposed allocation of the party’s responsibilities to chief ministers, saying if CMs were made in-charge in their provinces,  they might not be able to function effectively due to work load. Khanal said the issue of preventing chief ministers from shouldering party responsibility would be discussed in the Standing Committee.

The secretariat meeting had named the office bearers of the provincial committees a few weeks ago when two members of the secretariat — Madhav Kumar Nepal and Naryan Kaji Shrestha — were out of the country. These two leaders had opposed the selection of provincial committees’ office bearers by the party in their absence.

The NCP (NCP) will have to merge the lower committees and name the office bearers and members of the lower committees after giving full shape to the provincial committees. Some party leaders have criticised the party leadership for delaying the formation of lower committees.