Ruling NCP's Standing Committee meeting today at 11 am

KATHMANDU, May 13: The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is holding the party's crucial Standing Committee meeting today. 

The meeting is set to begin at 11 am at the Dhumbarahi-based party headquarters in the capital. The meeting was confirmed and the tentative agenda for the same was finalized during a meeting between Prime Minister and Chairperson of the party KP Sharma and the Executive Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at Baluwatar on Monday, according to a source close to PM Oli.

"The Standing Committee meeting is expected to revolve around some issues including India's encroachment of  Lipulekh, a Nepali territory, and the government's upcoming fiscal year budget," Haribol Gajurel, a Standing Committee member of the party, told Republica Online on Tuesday.

The SC meeting which was scheduled to be held on Thursday was put off last Wednesday after the party's chairman Oli expressed his unwillingness to convene it after coming to know that a majority of the members would pressurize him to step down from the post of prime minister owing to poor performance of the government.

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However, Executive Chairman Dahal told reporters that the party's Standing Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday had been postponed at the last minute due to the lack of homework.

Likewise, a Secretariat meeting of the party ended inconclusive on Wednesday last week after PM Oli left the Secretariat meeting halfway. The rival factions have been pressurizing the prime minister to implement the 'one person, one position' principle, forcing Oli to either leave the post of the party's chairman or the premiership. 

PM Oli is in minority in all party committees after senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and Executive Chairman Dahal forged an alliance to oust him from power. Miffed with the failure of Oli to honor the promises made to him earlier, another senior leader within the party, Bam Dev Gautam, also sided with the alliance of the rival factions.