Gautam gives a new twist to NCP’s prolonged dispute

PM Oli and his wife paid a surprise visit to Bamdev Gautam’s residence at Bhaisepati on Tuesday evening. Photo courtesy: Twitter

NEWS ANALYSIS

Kathmandu, 29 July: Nepal Communist Party vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam has introduced a middle-path formula to end the prolonged dispute between the Oli and Dahal-Nepal camp.
On Tuesday, Gautam, at the meeting of the dissatisfied faction in the party, had presented a six-point document which may help to stop the party from a split for the time being.
According to the Gautam formula, Oli should remain to the post of the PM and party chairman for the time being.
Oli should remain the party chairman, however, the responsibility of the executive party chairman should be given to Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda.
Until the unity national convention of the party, Oli should remain as the party chairman and develop an environment to elect next party chairman through a consensus and Oli should continue as the PM until next general elections.
The party should not intervene on the government’s day to day works, however, the government should consult with the party secretariat while taking the decision on national and international issues.
The government should consult with the party secretariat earlier to the reshuffle of the cabinet.
Gautam was one among the senior leaders in the party demanding Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation from both the posts. The sudden twist on Gautam’s stance has given relief to PM Oli, whereas, it has weakened Dahal-Nepal alliance’s demand.
This could be the reason that on Tuesday evening, Oli, along with his wife Radhika, had made a surprise visit to Gautam’s residence in Bhaisepati.
Furthermore, party’s senior leader Bhim Rawal, who is known to be a strong critic of Oli, asked Dahal to stop the politics of counting their heads in a give and take of power between Dahal and Oli. Rawal suggested finding a common ground of agreement on keeping unity in the party through consultation between the two chairmen.
Although Tuesday’s meeting between Oli and Dahal was ended with the challenge of demonstrating each other’s strength by both the sides, after the meeting of the Dahal-Nepal faction at Baluatar, the leaders in the faction have been compelled to rethink on their move further.
During Oli and Dahal meeting, Oli repeated the previous stance that he was not going to quit both the posts. Oli faction one-sidedly cancelled Tuesday’s standing committee meeting, whereas, Dahal-Nepal faction was all set to hold the standing committee meeting and endorse a minute asking Oli’s resignation from both the posts.
It was believed, if the Dahal-Nepal faction had minuted the demand for Oli’s resignation, there was a big chance of a split in the party, which has been avoided for the time being.
Party’s co-chairman Dahal called the meeting at Baluatar but he didn’t call it as the standing committee meeting, rather a gathering of the standing committee members. The meeting was attended by those members in the Dahal-Nepal camp, whereas, members in the Oli camp didn’t attend the meeting.
Gautam was present at the meeting for a short period. After presenting his middle-path formula, he had quit the meeting venue.
People’ News Monitoring Service