CPN-UML's Nepal-led faction accuses party chairperson Oli of trying to divide party

KATHMANDU, March 16: The Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist) has accused party chairperson KP Sharma Oli of trying to divide the party.

Speaking at a press conference organized to make public the details of the party faction's national gathering scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Yogesh Bhattarai, a key leader of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction, said that Chairperson Oli is promoting factional feud in the name of holding party meetings, rejecting to abide by the verdict of Supreme Court and making attempts to split the party.

Bhattarai said that the party should uphold the verdict of the apex court which invalidated the unification between the CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Center).

He was of the view that all previous committees of the CPN (UML) from the ward level to the central level should be automatically restored as per the dossiers that were endorsed by the party's 9th general convention and the party statute.

"The factional gathering organized by the Oli-led faction on March 12 has further deepened discomfort, distrust and suspicion in the party, taking the party toward a split," Bhattarai observed.

Bhattarai also objected to the "unilateral decisions" taken by the party's central committee meeting on March 12 which was dominated by the Oli-led faction.

He also demanded that "unilateral decisions" taken by the party's central committee meeting on March 12 be scrapped.

The two rival factions of the CPN (UML) are at loggerheads over the decisions taken by the Oli-led faction on March 12. Although senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and leaders belonging to his faction attended the party's central committee meeting on Monday, they are opposing the Oli-led faction's unilateral moves.

It was the first meeting the Madhav Nepal-led faction attended after they returned to their mother party after the Supreme Court revived the CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Center) while invalidating the Nepal Communist Party which was formed after the unification between the CPN (UML) and CPN (MC) in 2018.

On March 12, the central committee meeting dominated by the Oli-led faction made various decisions without taking consent of the Nepal-led faction.

The meeting also nominated 23 new members to the party’s Central Committee (CC). The meeting decided to nominate 23 former Maoist leaders who chose to join the UML as CC members.