Kathmandu, July 4:

Most of the central committee members airing their views at the 15th meeting of the CPN-UML stressed the need to utilise the given opportunity to bring an end to feudalism as per the mandate of the April revolution. They also said it will be appropriate to hold the party’s eighth general convention only after the constituent assembly election.

“The opportunity of toppling feudalism, which is represented by the monarchy, must be better utilised and the eight parties must move together towards establishing a democratic republic,” a press statement issued at the end of today’s meeting said. The meeting will continue tomorrow.

Central committee members Naresh Kharel, Bachaspati Devkota, Devraj Ghimire, Hemraj Rai, Bhim Acharya, Gokarna Bista and Rakam Chemjong aired their views on party general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal’s political report. The report, among other things, states that there are still four forces active in the country — the royalists, bourgeois reformists (NC, NC-D and others, revolutionary democratic party (UML) and the extreme leftist force (CPN-Maoist).

However, Pradip Gyawali, one of the central committee members who is believed to be close to standing committee member KP Oli, is learnt to have differed over Nepal’s analysis. He is claimed to have said during the meeting that there were only two forces — democratic and non-democratic forces — which remained in existence since the fall of the Rana regime.

The statement stated that non-transparency and unruly activities were harmful to the party and such activities will ultimately tarnish the party’s image. The members who expressed their views in today’s meeting stressed the need to keep the party united so that the present challenges can be tackled effectively.

They also stressed that the party should not discriminate against anyone on the basis of ethnicity, region and gender. They said the party gave more priority to class and ideological aspects.