KATHMANDU, July 28: A secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party which was scheduled to take place today afternoon has been deferred for tomorrow.

This is the second time in a week that the NCP crucial secretariat meeting was postponed.

The meeting was expected to find out a solution for power-sharing in the party’s various departments as multiple party leaders have staked their claims to certain posts.

It is learned that the post of chief of the party’s school department has become a major bone of contention with at least four party heavyweights, including Ishwar Pokharel and Narayankaji Shrestha, lobbying intensely for it.

As the top leadership couldn’t make a choice between these two, another two standing committee members, Ghanashyam Bhusal and Beduram Bhusal, are now making their own claims.

With the selection of the party school department chief becoming ever more complicated, former prime minister and NCP senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal has also expressed his willingness to step into that role. 

Though the party top brass held several rounds of formal and informal meetings in the past couple of weeks to resolve the matter, they failed to forge consensus.

Party leaders are also divided over selecting the chief of the organization department. Bam Dev Gautam has already staked his claim to this department as it is the body which decides memberships, promotions and various roles for party leaders and cadres.

Meanwhile, as the old guard continues to wrangle over the chiefs of the 32 departments, the youth leaders seem to be getting frustrated. Some of them have floated the idea of the two co-chairmen themselves overseeing the school department. 

Ex-prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was chief of the UML for nearly two decades, is likely to become chief of the party’s department of foreign affairs. 

 
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