KATHMANDU: Amid heightened differences among the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) top brass, party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal have asked Prime Minister KP Oli to step down from the premiership.
Today’s meeting attended by trio — PM Oli, Chairman Dahal and senior leader Nepal — basically focused on thrashing out the differences that have surfaced in the party in the last one month.
“The Prime Minister must resign,” a party leader quoted senior leader Nepal, who participated in today’s meeting, as saying.
Today’s meeting was a continuation of the one-on-one meetings between PM Oli and Chairman Dahal, however, involving senior leader Nepal this time.
The meeting was expected to sort out intra-party differences since top three leaders were involved in it.
It should be noted that a meeting held on Wednesday at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar had ended inconclusively with both the leaders remaining adamant to their respective stance.
The party’s Standing Committee (SC) meeting has been scheduled for Friday.
The SC meeting of the NCP has been postponed time and again after the one-on-one meeting between Dahal and Oli ended inconclusively.
Meanwhile, earlier today, majority of NCP Secretariat members decided to pile pressure on PM Oli to step down, and give continuity to SC meeting at any cost.
The meeting held at the NCP Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence in Khumaltar had decided to expedite the SC meeting, said a Secretariat member.
NCP Chairman Dahal, senior leaders Jhala Nath Khanal and Nepal, NCP Vice Chairman Bam Dev Gautam, Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Ram Bahadur Thapa were present in the meeting.
The SC meeting which began on June 24 has been postponed time and again. It has been postponed for six times already since June 30.
The SC meeting slated for July 10 was postponed for July 17 stating that the whole party rank and file had to participate in rescue and relief operations for flood victims.
The intra-party feud of the ruling NCP has deepened after most of the Standing Committee members demanded resignation of Prime Minister Oli from both of his posts.
Senior leader Nepal and his aides were earlier disappointed as they were not involved in the talks.
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