KATHMANDU, Dec 24: The two rival factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which suffered a split recently, are holding parallel central committee meetings on Thursday.
The faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal is holding its central committee meeting at 1 pm at a party venue in Babarmahal while the KP Sharma Oli-led faction is convening its central committee meeting at 1 pm at Baluwatar.
Today's central committee meetings of the rival factions are expected to chalk out their future strategies.
This is the second time the NCP's rival factions are holding parallel central committee meetings as the intraparty rift in the party reached its peak following the dissolution of parliament and announcement of midterm elections for April 30 and May 10 next year by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
As an exercise of party split, rival factions of ruling NCP hol...
The Dahal-led faction termed Oli's move totally unconstitutional saying that the constitution has not envisaged the dissolution of the HoR by a majority government, while the Oli-led faction said the prime minister only used his prerogative as he was about to face a vote of no-confidence in the House of Representatives by lawmakers close to Dahal.
The Dahal-led faction's Standing Committee meeting decided to take disciplinary action against Oli on Sunday evening, a couple of hours after President Bidya Devi Bhandari announced the dissolution of parliament upon the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli.
On Tuesday, a central committee meeting of the Dahal-led faction endorsed a decision previously taken by its Standing Committee meeting. The Dahal-led faction's central committee removed Oli from the post of party chairperson while bringing senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal to his place, on Tuesday itself.
On the same day, the central committee meeting of the Oli-led faction also announced an 1,199-member committee to organize the party's general convention in November next year. The same meeting also removed Narayan Kaji Shrestha from the post of party spokesperson. Leader Pradeep Kumar Gyawali was named the new spokesperson for the party.
On Wednesday, the Dahal-led faction removed Oli from the post of parliamentary party leader, replacing him with Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Both rival factions have approached the Election Commission (EC) demanding that they should be officially recognized as the legitimate Nepal Communist Party. On Wednesday, the Dahal-led faction submitted signatures of 290 central committee members, including electronic signatures of three CC members who were not able to come to Kathmandu due to personal reasons.
The faction has argued that it has an absolute majority in the CC and the EC should recognize it as the authentic NCP. The Dahal-led faction has claimed that it has more than 40 percent of central committee members [out of 441] to claim the NCP.
On Tuesday, the Oli-led faction conveyed to the EC that its central committee had been expanded so as to make it 1,199-member with the addition of 556 members now and with the provision of adding 197 members in the future.
When founded in May 2018, the NCP had informed the election body that its central committee was 441-strong.
