KATHMANDU, AUGUST 28
Chair of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal today said his fight with CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli was not over party position but about ideology. He said he was ready to quit the post of party chair if a second-generation leader of the UML quit the party and joined the CPN(US).
At a public programme today, Nepal said leaders who were with him in the UML but kept their feet in two boats needed to know that they would not be able to reach their destination if they continued in that manner.
He said second generation UML leaders had pressured him to oust Oli. They also made efforts to convince Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to lead the next government.
However, when the five-party alliance became strong, these leaders backed off. "They told me to move ahead and when I turned back, I did not see anybody," Nepal said referring to second generation leaders who ditched him at the last moment when he registered a new party. Nepal said these leaders had told him to open a new party so that they could join it if they had to leave the UML.
Nepal said if Oli was ready to hand over party leadership to the second-generation, he would also make way for new party leadership. " I will give chance to second generation leaders and retire from party politics after some years," he added. Nepal blamed Oli of sidelining honest cadres and leaders and favouring his puppets. He said Oli's regressive moves were responsible for loss of majority in the Parliament.
He said he and his comrades were moving ahead in the pursuit of revolutionary socialism.
Meanwhile, Oli today held Nepal's arrogant attitude responsible for split in the party.
At a programme organised by the UML youth wing, he said Nepal's exit would not make any difference to the UML. "A few leaves keep falling off the tree, but the tree continues to grow, Oli said.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 29 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
