Say he has violated UML statute

KATHMANDU, MARCH 14

The CPN-UML faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal today wrote a letter to the Election Commission urging it not to implement the decisions taken by the establishment faction of the party led by party Chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Eleven Standing Committee members, including Nepal and Khanal, wrote the letter to the poll panel saying that the amendment made to the party's statute by the establishment faction was illegal.

They argued that as per the party's statute, its provisions could be amended only by the party's General Convention.

Leaders of the Nepal-Khanal faction stated in their letter that as per the UML statute, meetings of the Standing Committee and the Secretariat should be called before the Central Committee to fix agenda for the Central Committee meeting. They said since Oli violated that criterion, the CC meeting called by the PM on Friday was illegal.

The Nepal-Khanal faction also said that Oli had not called the Central Committee meeting to discuss unity between the UML and CPN-MC as per the notification issued by the Election Commission.

The rival faction urged the poll panel not to give legitimacy to the decisions taken by the Oli faction.

The establishment faction had called a special meeting of the party's Central Committee on Friday and removed leaders of the Nepal faction from key posts they held before the party's merger with the CPN-Maoist Centre.

Nepal, who headed the party's Foreign Affairs Department, was replaced by the PM's Foreign Affairs Adviser Rajan Bhattarai.

The establishment faction, which unilaterally amended the party statute, had also inducted 23 members in the 242-member Central Committee.

All of them were previously associated with the CPN-Maoist Centre.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 15, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.