KATHMANDU, March 8: Leaders close to Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction, which was earlier part of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) rival faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has decided to stay within the CPN-UML that was revived by the Supreme Court’s decision on Sunday.
An informal meeting of the Standing Committee members close to senior leader Nepal has concluded that it is better to stay within the UML than to be part of the former rebel party, CPN (Maoist Center), and fight against the tendency of Oli’s authoritarian style of working, according to leaders close to Nepal faction.
The meeting has also decided to welcome the verdict issued by the apex court in relation to the writ petition filed by NCP leader Rishi Kattel and remain part of the mother party. “The UML is a party made by us. We will stay within the same party and face any challenges that may come before us in the days ahead,” said a leader, who attended the meeting.
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The apex court on Sunday invalidated the unification between the erstwhile CPN-UML led by Oli and CPN (Maoist Center) led Dahal that took place some three years ago. The apex court also ruled that the existence of UML and Maoist Center now exist as they existed prior to the formation of the NCP. The two parties had announced unification 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.
