A meeting of the Maoist secretariat, held at its central office at Buddhanagar on Saturday, also decided to make Dr Bhattarai a deputy prime minister.
Following Saturday’s decision, Shrestha has become the second most powerful leader of the party in the CA after party chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal.
The meeting, which concluded Saturday, has also decided to dissolve the party’s Revolutionary People´s Council, which was created parallel to the government during the ‘People´s war’.
“In the changed political context, the party does not now see the relevance of the Revolutionary People´s Council,” said Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma.
The meeting decided to form a five-member committee for the management of the prime minister’s office. The members of the committee led by Top Bahadur Rayamajhi are Netra Bikram Chand, Barsa Man Pun, Lilamani Pokharel and Shakti Basnet. The committee will coordinate with the party and the security wings for managing the PM’s office. Similarly, the meeting decided to form a separate committee under the leadership of party chairman and Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal to manage the party central office. Other members of the committee are Mohan Baidya, Dinanath Sharma and Narayan Prasad Dahal.
Saturday’s meeting has given Dr Bhattarai a major responsibility of monitoring the functioning of the government. All ministers representing the Maoist in the government will be answerable to Dr Bhattarai.
The meeting held a comprehensive discussion on tarai issues. It formed a five-member high-level commission under the leadership of party secretariat member Lilamani Pokharel to make a detailed study of the tarai. The commission will include a lawyer. Other members of the commission are Post Bahadur Bogati, Barsa Man Pun and Ram Rijhan Yadav.
“The Commission has been mandated to submit a detail report to the party on the tarai crisis within the next three months,” said spokesperson Sharma, adding, “The party has taken the tarai issue quite seriously and we want to prepare a concrete plan to address the issues there.”
The meeting has also formed a 13-member publications department under the chairmanship of party spokesperson Sharma.
On the issue of finalizing its candidates for by-elections, the meeting has decided to initiate a dialogue with all other political parties including the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).
“We want to talk to the other parties to maintain consensus regarding this matter,” said Sharma.
ghanashyam@myrepublica.com
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