NCP Standing Committee to meet at 11 am tomorrow

KATHMANDU: The Standing Committee meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has been scheduled for 11 am on Thursday at the Dhumbarahi-based party office.

The meeting will initiate discussions on narrowing down the intra-party disputes that have surfaced in the last couple of weeks.

A meeting of the party Secretariat has been held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday.

Party Chairmen KP Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal had on Tuesday held a meeting to discuss the agenda for the Standing Committee meeting.

It should be noted that the party had earlier entrusted Dahal and party’s General Secretary Bishnu Paudel to prepare the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.

Tomorrow’s Standing Committee is being convened after several weeks of intra-party disputes, particularly between the Prime Minister KP Oli and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal-Dahal-led faction of the party.

After weeks of escalated intra-party wrangling, the two factions have finally decided to hold the meeting of the Standing Committee, something which the disgruntled faction has been demanding.

PM Oli was criticized from within the party for centralizing the power with himself.

Of late, the dissatisfied section of the ruling party even engineered the ousting of PM Oli after the latter brought two ordinances two weeks ago, something which has been criticized as Oli’s plan at further consolidating his grip in both the party and the government.

The ordinances, which were immediately endorsed by the President, however, were withdrawn following criticism from all quarters, including the ruling party.

Since then, PM Oli had been trying to woo ruling party leaders to secure his majority both in the party Secretariat and the Parliamentary Party.

It has been said that among the 174 lawmakers representing the ruling NCP, PM Oli has around 78 on his side, which is 10 lawmakers short of a majority.

Both the sides – PM Oli and Dahal-Nepal – had even initiated a signature campaign to prove their strength in the party.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Chairman Dahal and senior leader Nepal have decided to demand ‘one person, one post’ during Thursday’s Standing Committee meeting.

A meeting among the disgruntled leaders held in Lalitpur on Tuesday had decided to this regard.