KATHMANDU: A Standing Committee meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is taking place on Sunday.

Two chairmen have to fix agendas in understanding before any party meetings as per the agreement but the one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and NCP Executive Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is unlikely in the days ahead.

Briefing about one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting with Oli held recently, Dahal told his copper-bottomed leaders and cadres in a gathering on Thursday that he is no longer going to hold one-on-one meetings with the prime minister in the coming days.

“The situation to hold a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Oli has ended.  From now onwards everything will be discussed in the party meetings,” a leader close to Dahal-Nepal faction quoted Dahal as saying.

With the environment to hold a one-on-one dialogue between the two heavyweights ending, the responsibility to steer the party ahead thrashing out the existing differences has now come to the shoulders of the NCP second rung leaders.

However, the second rung leaders are also not taking the initiative to facilitate the dialogues between Oli and Dahal rather both the factions are bent on taking their alliance up to the local level. Secret and open meetings of provincial committees and class-based organizations of both the factions have been taking place, of late, to turn the tables in their favor.

Standing Committee member Astalaxmi Shakya  said that the time has come to take a concrete decision since Prime Minister Oli did not correct his behaviors even though the party provided him opportunities for several times.

Oli is in minority in the Secretariat, Standing Committee and Central Committee of the party.

Dahal-Nepal faction is in a mood to curtail his responsibilities through the upcoming Standing Committee meeting and take this agenda to the CC meeting. The faction is making preparations to pile pressure on Oli to relinquish one of his posts – either the prime minister or the party chairman.

On the other hand, Oli is not likely to resign from any one of his posts as expected by the Dahal-Nepal faction. Oli has already stated that he will quit the post of chairman through the upcoming general convention and the prime minister from the next parliamentary elections.

This is the crux of the stalemate gurdling the ruling NCP. That is why both the factions have intensified meetings with the cadres and leaders of their faction to turn the tables in their favor presuming that the party is going to split sooner or later.

The Dahal-Nepal faction has a strategy to first strip Oli of his post of chairman before ousting him from the post of the prime minister.

“If Oli is asked to quit as the prime minister, he is likely to split the party by bringing an ordinance on party split,” an NCP leader said, adding, “Hence, he should be first stripped of his post of chairman before taking any other steps against him.”