UML's Nepal-led faction holds central committee meeting to chalk out strategy to contain Chairman Oli's "growing hegemony" in party

KATHMANDU, March 27: A central committee meeting of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) is currently underway in Kathmandu.

The meeting is said to be a continuation of Friday's meeting which took place at a party venue in Kalanki.

According to Thakur Gaire, a central committee member of the party, the meeting is being held to chalk out the party's strategy amid heightened dispute within the ruling party owing to a factional feud.

The meeting comes in the face of "growing hegemony" of the Oli-led faction in the ruling party, leaders close to the Nepal-led faction said.

Earlier on Friday, senior leaders of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction including Jhalanath Khanal, Yogesh Bhattarai and Ghanshyam Bhusal joined a parliamentary party meeting of the party called by Chairperson KP Sharma Oli.

During the meeting, Chairperson Oli warned them of taking action for working against party interests.

The rival faction leaders, in response, stressed the need for keeping party unity intact and urged Chairman Oli to work for the same.

They also opined that all unilateral decisions made earlier by Chairperson Oli should be rolled back.

The two factions led by KP Sharma Oli and Madhav Kumar Nepal are at loggerheads over a host of intraparty issues.

Miffed at the Oli-led faction's unilateral actions, the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction has already held a national gathering of party cadres and leaders in Kathmandu while it shunned the party's parliamentary party meeting and central committee meeting called at the convenience of the rival faction. The Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction has also already formed the party's parallel committees across the country.

The CPN-UML, which was revived after the Supreme Court's verdict to invalidate the then Nepal Communist Party born out of the merger between the then CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) in 2018, has witnessed a serious rift within the party as the Oli-led faction is taking actions one after another against the leaders of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction accusing them of being involved in factional politics.

On March 12, the Oli-led faction nominated 23 new members to the party’s Central Committee (CC). A meeting of the party’s CC members close to Oli made a decision to nominate 23 former Maoist leaders who chose to join the UML as CC members.

The Oli-led faction has sought clarification from the leaders belonging to the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction for getting ‘involved in factional politics by going against the party’s interests’. However, the rival faction has said that the party is facing trouble due to Oli's growing hegemony.

The Oli-led faction has taken a series of actions against the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction which was earlier taking side with the Dahal-led faction when the Nepal Communist Party existed until the Supreme Court's verdict to invalidate the NCP.

Despite strong warnings and threats from Chairperson KP Sharma Oli, the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction has continued its parallel activities in recent weeks. With the growing squabbling between the two factions, the ruling CPN-UML is on the verge of a split.