KATHMANDU: CPN-UML Standing Committee member Karn Bahadur Thapa has officially registered his dissenting opinion at the party’s central office ahead of the second statute convention, set to begin on Friday.
“I am at the party’s central office to formally register my dissent,” Thapa said on Thursday. “Once registered, I will make my dissent public. This is meant to contribute to internal party debate.”
Thapa has previously expressed his opposition to proposals by current UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, particularly regarding amendments to the document on “democratization of party life”, which includes executive posts with two-term limits and an age cap of 70 years. He has consistently criticized attempts to extend leadership tenure beyond these limits and to make decisions that contravene party rules.
During past Standing Committee and Central Committee meetings in Shrawan, Thapa accused Chairman Oli of attempting to override party policies and documents he himself had introduced. The UML has now accepted Thapa’s dissent, allowing it to be discussed at the upcoming convention.
Thapa said the 70-year age limit and two-term limit were introduced scientifically by Oli himself and institutionalized from the eighth and ninth conventions. “The claim that the Secretariat removed these limits is false,” he said. “This policy was proposed by Chair Oli from the seventh convention and has been applied consistently since.”
According to Thapa, the party’s organizational proposal clearly outlines on pages 23, 30, and 31 that these rules apply from the ward level to the central level. He warned that attempts are being made within UML to weaken institutional decisions and party regulations.
“Chair Oli initially made the age and term limits scientific, but it is inappropriate for him to now undermine them,” Thapa said.
He added that senior leaders such as Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Amrit Kumar Bohora, and Modnath Prashrit have already implemented the age limit, and it should continue to be enforced. “Following the rules ensures fairness; without enforcement, personal whims can prevail,” he noted.
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