Nepal’s ruling communist party leaders on Tuesday once again failed to negotiate a power-sharing deal between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and executive chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, who convened a meeting of the powerful Standing Committee despite Oli’s decision to postpone it.
Prachanda and some senior leaders reached the Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar at around 11 am for the scheduled meeting of the 45-member Standing Committee of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to iron out the differences between the two warring factions.
However, Prime Minister’s press advisor Surya Thapa said the meeting was postponed. But Matrika Yadav, a Standing Committee member, said the meeting would be held at any cost, even if Prime Minister Oli refused to attend, the Kathmandu Post reported.
Prachanda and senior party leader Jhalanath Khanal then went to meet Oli only to return to the meeting hall after the latter told them to do whatever they wished to, the paper said. At the meeting hall, Prachanda briefed the Standing Committee members about his talks with Oli.
The Standing Committee members close to Oli did not attend the unilateral meeting convened by Prachanda. However, 29 Standing Committee members and two invitees were present at the meeting, which started at around 3:00 pm and lasted for one hour, party sources said.
Standing Committee member Ganesh Shah said the meeting was postponed as the two leaders need more time for informal consultations to sort out their differences. The Standing Committee meetings have been postponed for nine times since June 24.
“It was against the party statute and inappropriate for PM Oli to postpone the meeting unilaterally,” Party spokesperson Narayankaji Shrestha told reporters.
“Today’s meeting did not discuss the party’s agenda but it decided to hand over the responsibility of convening another Standing Committee meeting to party chairman Prachanda,” he said.
Those who spoke on the occasion criticised Prime Minister Oli. On Wednesday last, a Standing Committee meeting was briefly held at the PM’s official residence. However, the prime minister did not attend the meeting.
Then, the party decided to convene another meeting on July 28 to review government’s performance, finalising division of work among party’s cadres and leaders, and proposed general convention among other issues.