KATHMANDU: The CPN-UML Secretariat meeting has decided to adopt the report prepared by party Vice Chair Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’.
The document was finalized by incorporating some key points from a separate report prepared earlier by UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel.
Pokharel had prepared a separate report based on suggestions collected from party cadres across all seven provinces, with proposals suggesting that the UML leadership should be changed. However, Badal, who has maintained that there should be no alternative to Chairman KP Sharma Oli, prepared another report opposing the proposal.
Top leaders made several attempts to resolve the ideological dispute that emerged within the party over the two separate reports, but failed to reach an agreement.
After discussions held at Chairman Oli’s residence in Gundu last Thursday failed to produce a solution, Oli directed leader Pradeep Gyawali to prepare another report.
The situation became more complicated after the move drew criticism for assigning the task of preparing the report to someone outside the working group.
Amid the dispute, Chairman Oli also directed Badal, Pokharel and Vice Chairman Bishnu Prasad Paudel to merge the two reports into a single document in an effort to ease tensions.
The latest Secretariat meeting ultimately decided to proceed with Badal’s report, leaving the stronger points in Pokharel’s report calling for a change in leadership in the background.
The report is now set to be presented as the main agenda at the UML Central Committee meeting, which will be held over the next three days at a party palace in Lalitpur.
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