KATHMANDU: Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister KP Oli are holding a one-on-one meeting at prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.
Dahal reached Baluwatar this afternoon to hold talks with PM Oli in a bid to narrow down the intra-party rift that has taken a new height in the last one month.
The two top leaders had met on Saturday as well amid speculations that Dahal and Oli had made a deal on power-sharing.
Earlier today, Dahal had assured senior party leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and party Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha that no such agreements were reached between the two leaders.
Dahal labelled the reports of such agreement as a ploy to weaken him, which he further claimed has already refuted any ‘deal’ with PM Oli.
Speculations were that Dahal had agreed with PM Oli’s proposal to wait until the next general convention of the party.
A party leader who attended in today’s meeting of the Dahal camp at his Khumaltar-based residence, quoted Dahal as saying, “PM Oli and I discussed on a wide range of issues. But we never came to a concrete decision, and nothing had happened as reported.”
PM Oli and Dahal have in recent days intensified political meetings to narrow down the differences between the two on power-sharing issues, among others.
Dahal and his aides have been demanding PM Oli’s resignation while the latter seems to be adamant to this stance of not stepping down at any cost.
NCP Chairman Dahal has been reiterating on concluding the unification process of the party and the membership issue rather than announcing the date for the convention.
Meanwhile, amid intra-party row, the Standing Committee meeting of the party slated for today was postponed until Tuesday.
This is the sixth consecutive time that the SC meeting has been postponed. The meeting has been deferred time and again as top-notch leaders have failed to reach a consensus on power-sharing in the party.
Dahal, senior leaders Nepal and Khanal have been pressing Prime Minister Oli to quit both the posts. However, PM Oli has remained adamant not to quit any time soon.
The meeting comes on the heels of reports that NCP Chairman duo Oli and Prachanda have agreed to hold the General Convention of the party in November-December.
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