Prime minister vents ire at 22 CC members

Kathmandu, November 22

Prime Minister and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-chairperson KP Sharma Oli today vented ire at the 22 Central Committee members who had submitted their memorandum yesterday to the party’s General Secretary Bishnu Poudel criticising the government and party leadership for poor performance, among other issues.

In the party’s secretariat meeting today, the PM likened the 22 CC members’ dissatisfaction as an attempt to derail the current political change, according to a secretariat member. “Whatever responsibilities they have got in the party, they have not been able to perform their duty well and now they are aligning with regressive forces to foil the gains. It should not be listed on the agenda,” the secretariat member quoted Oli as saying in the meeting.

According to a secretariat member, the  PM was not in favour of listing the 22 members’ memorandum as one of the agenda of the party’s next meeting, but eventually, he agreed to do so after senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, secretariat member Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Bamdev Gautam threw their weight behind the memorandum.

Twenty CC members of the party, including Bijay Kumar Poudel, Jagannath Khatiwada, Garima Shah, Birodh Khatiwada, Ram Kumari Jhankri, Rabin Koirala, Yedubansha Jha, Bijay Gurung, Madhav Aryal and Jayanti Rai had submitted a memorandum to General Secretary Poudel yesterday.

They had raised question regarding the government’s working style, its performance and discriminatory behaviour towards some party leaders and cadres. According to sources, those CC members had raised those issues in the memorandum after consulting some other secretariat members, who were not happy with the PM. The CC members who submitted the memorandum to the party felt neglected by the party’s government.

They have demanded that decisions be taken by the standing committee, politburo and central committee rather than the party’s secretariat.

The 22 CC members had stated in their memorandum that the government failed to control corruption. They accused the government of not being transparent.

They stated that corrupt people were appointed by the government in government institutions while party cadres were being neglected. They said lawmakers were not even allowed to raise their voice in the in the parliamentary party.

The NCP has not formed the 147-members politburo and neither has it published the political document. Despite demands within the party, the leadership has not called the party’s standing committee meeting after July 5.

Following consultation with Bishnu Poudel and Ram Bahadur Thapa, Oli and Co-chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal reached understanding on forming the 147-member politburo inducting 65 members from the erstwhile CPN (Maoist Centre) and 82-members from the erstwhile CPN-UML, a source said. Oli, Dahal, Poudel and Thapa had held a secret meeting on Tuesday night.

As per their understanding, for Politburo, the erstwhile CPN-MC would choose 65 leaders from its 86-member secretariat while the erstwhile CPN-UML would choose 82 members from its erstwhile Politburo and senior members of the central committee.

NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha told THT “The two-member taskforce has presented the report to fill the provincial committees. It will be discussed in tomorrow’s meeting. We will also discuss issues related to the organisation.”