Oli’s faction disagrees on using the 10 per cent nomination provision

Kathmandu February 24

Disgruntled members of the task force formed to prepare a roadmap to complete unification of lower committees of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) have recommended removal of all ‘ineligible’ provincial committee members and nomination of 10 per cent provincial committee members as per the provision in the party statute.

This recommendation figures in a seven-page report submitted this evening to Prime Minister and NCP Co-chair KP Sharma Oli by Beduram Bhusal, Yogesh Bhattarai and Lekharaj Bhatta.

Bhusal and Bhattarai belong to the Madhav Kumar Nepal faction in the NCP while Bhatta belongs to NCP Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s faction. The Dahal and Nepal factions are not happy with the selection process of the party’s provincial committee members. They say the process was dominated by Oli. The task force formed earlier to prepare the roadmap to complete unification of the party’s lower committees was dissolved on Friday after it could not submit its report.

Nepal and Dahal’s supporters were not happy with dissolution of the task force formed by the NCP Standing Committee.  On Friday, Bhusal, Bhattarai, Bhatta, Energy Minister Barshaman Pun and former finance minister Surendra Pandey had said they would submit their own report to the party leadership. All five were members of the task force dissolved on Friday. Pandey and Pun had agreed on the content of the report, but were not present when the report was submitted. Pandey was out of the country and Pun was out of Kathmandu valley.

The report has recommended removal of ‘ineligible’ members from provincial committees, such as KomalOli and others who were not members of the erstwhile CPN-UML or CPN-Maoist Centre. The report also suggested that the party nominate 10 per cent provincial committee members as per the statute provision.

According to the report 140 members can be nominated in all seven provincial committees as per the 10 per cent nomination provision in the party statute. Twenty-one members can be nominated in Province 1; 22 in Province 2; 22 in Province 3; 19 in Gandaki Province; 20 in Province 5; 18 in Karnali Province and 18 in Far-west province.

The Nepal faction wants to use the nomination provision to enable its supporters to become provincial committee members. However, Oli’s faction disagrees. The report also recommended forming a 147-member politburo — 81 from the erstwhile UML and 66 from the erstwhile CPN-MC. The NCP has not formed its politburo yet.