Amid the political turmoil in Nepal, the ruling communist party executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ said on Sunday that he will not allow the party to split and any attempt from anywhere to weaken its unity would hurt the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters.
Addressing the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) members in his hometown Chitwan, Prachanda said that he was determined to keep the party unity intact.
“It is natural to have differences of opinion, dispute and debate in a big party, but I will not allow the party to split,” he said. “If there is a dispute in the party, there are proper procedures to resolve it.”
His remarks came amid speculation that the NCP could split after top party leaders, including ‘Prachanda’, demanded Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were “neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate.”
Prachanda also advised the party cadres to abide by the party principles and not to run from one camp to another at the time of the crisis.
“Don’t describe some leaders within the ruling party as anti-national and others as nationalist,” he said, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Oli’s recent statement that some of the ruling party leaders are aligning with the southern neighbour to remove him from power after his government issued a new political map incorporating three Indian territories.
The party and the government worked together to issue the new map, he pointed out.
Earlier in the day, addressing a meeting of the District Disaster Management Committee in Chitwan, Prachanda said that the political activities should not affect the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis and natural disasters.
“Any attempt from anywhere else to weaken the party unity would not be in favour of the people,” Prachanda was quoted as saying by The Rising Nepal.
He urged the entire political parties, civil society, media and one and all to engage in a combined battle against the COVID-19 crisis and natural disasters. Oli and Prachanda have held over half a dozen one-on-one meetings in recent days, but the two leaders are nowhere close to a power-sharing deal.