Leaders belonging to Dahal-Nepal faction of the erstwhile CPN decide to part ways to their respective mother party

Published On: March 8, 2021 10:19 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, March 8: Leaders belonging to the Dahal-Nepal faction of the erstwhile Nepal Communist Party (NCP) have decided to be part of their respective mother party as per the Supreme Court verdict on Sunday.

A Standing Committee meeting of the faction held at the headquarter of the erstwhile CPN (Maoist Center) in Parisdanda made a decision to part their ways and become a part of their respective party before the unification between the two parties in May 2018, according to Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

Shrestha said that former UML faction led by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal will now join K P Oli-led CPN-UML, while the lawmakers belonging to Maoist Center will all stay with the Dahal-led party. The development comes a day after the apex court invalidated the unification between the erstwhile CPN-UML led by Oli and CPN (Maoist Center) led Dahal that took place on May 17, 2018.

A joint bench of justices Kumar Regmi and Bam Kumar Shrestha issued the verdict giving authenticity of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to Kattel, who had registered the party at the Election Commission (EC) in his name prior to the formation of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by Oli and Dahal.

With the apex court’s verdict, the NCP’s 174 seats in parliament will now be divided based on the number of seats won by the UML and Maoist Center prior to their merger into the NCP after the parliamentary election in 2017. The two parties had forged an electoral alliance with an agreement to unify the two parties after the election.

As per the existing rules, lawmakers may lose their posts if they chose to be part of party other than the one they originally belonged to during the election. Of the total 121 lawmakers elected under UML in the last parliamentary election, Nepal-led faction has a total 40 lawmakers on its side. While four lawmakers close to Nepal have chosen to stay neutral recently, two other lawmakers Lal Babu Pandit and Tulasa Thapa, who were close to Nepal in the past, have not spoken any words in public in favor of Nepal lately.