Dahal´s rival faction led by Maoist Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has been fiercely criticizing party chairman Dahal allegedly for handing over the party´s army to the Special Committee without first preparing a national security policy and integration modality suitable for PLA combatants.[break]
However, Sharma, who is also a member of the Special Committee, claimed that the leaders close to the Dahal faction are equally worried about combatants´ future.
Addressing a gathering organized by leaders of Dahal faction within the Federation of Nepal National Employees (FNNE), Sharma also urged the participants to trust the party chairman.
Baidya faction had registered note of dissent against the party´s decision to accept the integration modality proposed by the Nepal Army (NA) saying that agreeing to NA´s proposal was tantamount to surrendering to rival forces.
"We formed the PLA. I´m one of the deputy commanders. So, we love our party´s army more than Kiranji," Mahadev Pokherel, FNNE secretariat member quoted Sharma as saying at the gathering.
PLA sources claim that most of the PLA commanders are close to Dahal faction. But, at the same time, majority of the lower rung commanders and combatants are from Baidya-faction.
One participant close to Dahal-faction, however, claimed that the leaders did not give convincing counter-arguments against the allegations made by the Baidya faction.
Party secretary Post Bahadur Bogati accused the Baidya-faction of sticking to a ´dogmatic´ political line while terming Dr Baburam Bhattarai as ´revisionist´.
After the Palungtar plenum, all factions in the Maoist party have been organizing separate gatherings at the national as well as local levels. While the gathering was organized by Dahal-faction of the FNNE, members from the Baidya faction also attended it.
Related story
NC meeting: Let's end factions and sub-factions in party
