There was a long serpentine queue of the party stalwarts desperately waiting for their turn to enter the meeting venue at Tandrangtar even as the dusk fell. Volunteers were busy making final preparations for the meeting, while members of the Young Communist League (YCL) paraded nearby.[break]
The leaders hope the meeting will give a new lease of life to the party that is facing an ideological dilemma after joining the peace process and has lately seen growing factionalism among the top three leaders and serious accusations and counter-accusations leveled against each other.
"We will resolve all the ideological differences and go ahead united as never before," says Maoist central leader Prakash Pokharel. However, all is not well with the party, no matter how hard it tries to wear a facade of normalcy at the meeting. Resolving intra-party disputes is not going to be an easy task for the former rebels.
The top three leaders -- Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai -- are presenting separate political documents which means the leaders are competing for their respective ideological lines.
Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya is likely to seriously challenge the party line of peace and constitution, adopted since the historic Chunwang meeting, with his "classical communist ideology" of state capture and one-party dictatorship.
Baidya was jailed in India when the Chunwang meeting adopted the line of Federal Democratic Republic and decided to join hands with the parliamentary parties to abolish monarchy. When he was released from jail after the success of Janaandolan-2, Baidya began scheming against the party-line which he felt was a deviation from communist political ideology.
Baidya, who enjoys a considerable clout in the party, first led an intra-party campaign against the alliance of Dahal and Bhattarai, and seriously challenged the duo during the Balaju plenum in Shrawan, 2064. He forced the party to decide to quit the government and strengthen the "people´s revolt".
The challenge from Baidya was stronger during the Kharipati national conclave held in Mangsir, 2065 where he pushed the party to adopt the line of "People´s Federal Democratic Republic", putting the former rebels´ position in a serious difficulty vis-a-vis the peace process.
Slowly, Dahal began tilting toward Baidya due to the latter´s organizational strength, but Bhattarai was silent as Dahal was still supporting his line of peace and constitution.
But things look more complicated this time around. With the relationship between Dahal and Bhattarai souring, Baidya is now in a strong position to dismantle the "Maoist commitment" to the ongoing peace process.
Leaders say the party will definitely wear a facade of unity, pretend that all the intra-party contradictions have been resolved, and pass a single document mixing the views of all the three leaders.
"The final document is likely to include both peace and constitution and a people´s revolt as the tactical line to realize People´s Federal Democratic Republic, which means party will face an ideological dilemma further," said a Maoist politburo member on condition of anonymity.
Standing Committee postponed
The party Standing Committee meeting scheduled for Saturday evening was postponed to Sunday morning. The party has stated that the meeting had to be postponed as hundreds of party cadres were yet to arrive at the venue. However, some central leaders doubt the explanation of the top leadership.
"Not all the cadres are standing committee members," said a central committee leader. There are differences among the top leaders over how to present separate documents at the meeting and fuse them.
Bhattarai and Baidya are against Dahal´s attempt to fuse all the documents and present it in the plenum prior to holding a debate on them. There are over 5,500 cadres participating in the plenum. The party is dividing them into 70 groups and form collective opinion on the party-line and other issues.
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