KATHMANDU, July 20: Ahead of a crucial secretariat meeting slated for Sunday, a group of leaders of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) representing the erstwhile CPN-UML have been exerting pressure on the party chairman KP Oli to appoint Bamdev Gautam as the party’s organization chief. They have also urged him to help appoint former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal as the chief of the party’s international department.
At an informal meeting of the leaders held in presence of prime minister and party chairman Oli, majority of leaders demanded that Gautam should be appointed as the chief of organization department. NCP leaders Oli, Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Ishwar Pokharel and Bishnu Poudel were present at the meeting.
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Another chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is also said to be in favor of naming Gautam as organization department chief whereas Oli is reportedly still undecided as several other leaders are also eying the powerful position. Along with Gautam, General Secretary Bishnu Poudel and secretariat member Ishwar Pokharel have also been eying for organization department chief position.
NCP leaders are divided over picking the chief of the organization department. Even Oli and Dahal themselves are said to be divided over whom to appoint organization department chief. Since the chief of the organization department plays an important role in deciding membership of the party, assigning roles to the cadres and their promotions, he or she can influence the party’s crucial general conventions.
Considering the upcoming general convention of the party, both the leaders want to name their trusted leader as the head of the department.
Some leaders say Oli wants to appoint general secretary Bishnu Paudel to the post. But leaders are not in favor of Oli’s choice especially after Paudel was also found to be involved in the high-profile Lalita Niwas land scam.
Gautam, who helped Oli to get elected as parliamentary party leader of the erstwhile CPN-UML and later to the prime ministerial position, is not happy with Oli in recent days. Oli, after being elected prime minister, had promised Gautam key position in either the government or the party. But now the relation between the two leaders has reportedly soured after Oli did not deliver on the promise.
