Oli reshuffles party committees, withdraws responsibilities given to leaders close to senior leader Nepal

All office bearers’ positions except Chairman and General Secretary scrapped

KATHMANDU, March 12: CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli reshuffled the party’s all key responsibilities on Friday.

The Central Committee (CC) members of the party close to senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal were not invited to the first CC meeting of the reinstated UML held at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Baluwatar.

The meeting took a number of important - some of them controversial - decisions that include giving new responsibilities to leaders belonging to the erstwhile CPN (Maoist Center), withdrawing the responsibilities given earlier to the leaders close to senior leader Nepal, holding the party’s general convention from November 18 to November 22 and amending the party’s statute.

Among other things, the meeting has also decided to scrap all office-bearers’ positions except the post of Chairman and General Secretary. Most of the scrapped positions were held by leaders close to senior leader Nepal.

In addition to nominating 23 leaders belonging to the former Maoist Center as UML CC members, the CC meeting also picked new provincial in-charge of the UML. The former Maoist leader Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal’ and Lekha Raj Bhatta have been picked as the UML’s in-charge of Bagmati Province and Sudur Paschim Province, respectively. Asta Laxmi Shakya and Bhim Rawal were the UML’s in-charge of Bagmati and Sudur Paschim Province, respectively. Both the leaders are close to senior leader Nepal.

The CC meeting has picked Subas Nembang as the party’s in-charge of Province 1, Satya Narayan Mandal as the in-charge of Province 2, Prithvi Subba Gurung as the in-charge of Gandaki Province, Shanker Pokharel as the in-charge of Lumbini Province and Yam Lal Kandel as the in-charge of Karnali Province.

While Bhim Acharya, a leader close to Nepal, was serving as the party’s in charge in Province 1, Yuvaraj Gyawali close to Nepal-led faction in the party was the in-charge of Karnali Province. Chairman Oli has stripped them of their responsibility with the decision on Friday.

The CC meeting has named Bishnu Paudel as the chief of the party’s Organization Department and Dr Rajan Bhattarai as the chief of the party’s Foreign Affairs Department. While Bam Dev Gautam was the chief of the party's Organization Department, senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was serving as the party’s chief of Foreign Relations Department in the UML.

The CC meeting of the Oli-led faction of the UML has picked Pradeep Gyawali as the head of the party’s Publicity Department.

In a clear sign that Chairman Oli would give no key positions to leaders close to Nepal, the CC meeting has decided to keep intact all committees and chiefs of sister organizations chosen when the Nepal-led faction of the party had chosen to side with the Dahal-led faction of the Nepal Communist Party.

Addressing the meeting, Chairman Oli said that all positions of office-bearers except chairman and general secretary had been scrapped. Ishwar Pokharel was elected as the General Secretary of the party during the last general convention of the UML.

Oli said the next CC meeting of the party will be held on March 20. He asked General Secretary Pokharel to invite the CC members close to senior leader Nepal as well in the next meeting.