KATHMANDU, Nov 6: Leaders close to Prime Minister KP Oli have chosen to boycott a secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) called by its executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday.

Sources said four PM Oli, Ram Bahadur Thapa, Ishwar Pokharel and Bishnu Paudel, who is also the party’s general secretary, decided not to attend the meeting held at the party’s headquarters in Dhumbarahi. There are a total nine members in the NCP’s Secretariat body.

Chairman Dahal had called the meeting, giving prior notice to Prime Minister Oli, who is also the other chairman of the party. However, Oli had told Dahal that he would not attend the meeting. Senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Narayan Kaji Shrestha attended the meeting called by Dahal.

Home Minister Thapa, who is a former Maoist leader considered close to Dahal in the past, had attended a similar meeting called by Dahal at his residence in Khumaltar on November 1. However, Thapa also opted to abstain from today’s meeting.

It is not clear whether those leaders chose to skip the meeting at the instruction of Prime Minister Oli. Leaders close to Oli have termed the secretariat meeting called by Dahal “a factional gathering of the party”.

Party insiders say the latest development shows a growing intra-party dispute in the ruling party as the establishment and rival factions have already reached the extreme of boycotting each other. Earlier on Thursday, PM Oli had alleged that the rival faction leaders were trying to oust him from power, while vowing to foil any such attempts.

 
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