By Pushpa Raj Pradhan
As per the earlier schedule, the Nepal Communist Party standing committee meeting postponed last week should be held at 11 am today. Until now, the standing committee members are not informed about the meeting.
It is believed that only after the meeting between party chairmen duo KP Sharma Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal set for this meeting, the standing committee meeting will be decided.
On Monday, the two chairmen were busy in holding the meeting of their closed party colleagues. Oli was busy in consulting and developing new strategies to face the upcoming situation in the party. On the other hand, Dahal was found holding meetings with Madhav Nepal, JN Khanal and other leaders. The Dahal-Nepal faction on Monday decided to resume the standing committee meeting and ask Oli to quit one post with a majority decision from the standing committee meeting. On the other hand, Oli is trying to avoid the standing committee meeting called for today.
Now, it seems, the two rival camps in the ruling Nepal Communist Paty (NCP) have reached to the point of no agreement. Prime Minister and ruling NCP chairman KP Sharma Oli has decided not to quit the post of the PM and also the party chairman.
People’s Multiparty Prolateriate and Dahal
Last week, the two chairmen were likely to ink an agreement for calling an early unity national convention of the party and Oli to support Dahal’s candidature to the post of the party chairman and Dahal to support Oli to continue the government. After agreeing on the new agreement, both the leaders went to meet President Bidya Devi Bhandari to inform about the latest development.
During the meeting with President Bhandari, Oli informed that Dahal will be the new party chairman by adopting “people’s multiparty proletariat” (PMP) formulated by UML’s paramount leader late Madan Bhandari, also the spouse of President Bhandari.
When Oli added the condition to adopt Madan Bhandari’s ideology, Dahal became suspicious and rejected to become the party chairman with the idea of PMP.
Since then, Oli’s efforts to bring Dahal on his side became unsuccessful.
The next morning, Dahal made clear to the anti-Oli front that he had not inked any agreement with Oli.
Dahal-Nepal verbal agreement:
The Mahdav Nepal camp is suspicious of Dahal’s unstable character. Therefore, to keep Dahal in their side, the Nepal camp has decided to develop a long-term partnership in sharing the power. If the Dahal-Nepal camp will be able to oust PM Oli from both the posts, Dahal will become the party chairman and Nepal will become the prime minister. Accordingly, after ousting Bidya Devi Bhandari, JN Khanal is assured to get the post of the party President.
However, the Nepal camp has not disclosed the role of Nepal in the unity national convention of the party.
Nepal wants to become the party chairman once before his political retirement. Similarly, Dahal has wished to become the chairman of the unified party from the unity national convention.
How the two leaders will adjust their inner desire, it has not been made clear, nevertheless, for the time being, the Nepal camp has assured Dahal that there will be a long-term partnership between Nepal and Dahal.
Oli camp’s strategy:
Oli personally has reached at the stage that it is almost impossible to stay together with Madhav Nepal as he is always creating obstacles to the government. Therefore, Oli is even ready to face the situation of an unfortunate split of the unified party, however, he doesn’t want to take the responsibility of splitting the party.
Oli is exercising different strategies to face the situation. According to Dahal, Oli is even planning to dissolve the parliament. One cannot deny such a possibility. Likewise, both the camps are planning to suspend each other camp’s party leaders.
So far, the party members have no authority to demand the resignation of the PM and party chairman following the party statute.
Likewise, all the members of the committees are the nominated people. On moral grounds, they have no authority to demand the resignation of an elected party chairman and the PM.
Furthermore, in the seven-point agreement endorsed during the unification of the former UML and Maoist Center, it is stated that the party chairmen duo shall resolve obstacles witnessed in the process of unification. There is no role of any third person except for the party chairmen duo.
Can the parliament be dissolved?
There is no provision of dissolve of the parliament in the constitution. However, there is space for an elected prime minister to justify his act to go for a fresh election. Whether Oli will dare to take such an unfortunate step, it is not sure. However, if the party will decide against Oli, he may take any of the decisions to save his political career.
Firstly, Oli will ask those leaders in his rival camp to wait until the unity national convention. So far, Oli has made clear that he is not going to contest the party election to the post of the chairman. If his rival camp will not wait till the unity national convention, Oli is not bound to quit the post of the party chairman.
Accordingly, even if the party will demand Oli’s resignation from the post of the PM, Oli has the right to seek a fresh mandate from the parliament as he is the elected prime minister.
Oli’s other strategy:
In case pressure is mounted against Oli to quit both the posts, he may put forward a proposal to quit active politics by the three leaders – Oli, Dahal and Nepal and remain as patron of the party by giving an opportunity to the second-generation leaders in the party. This could be the final strategy of Oli, however, Oli is not going to give a walkover to Dahal and Nepal so easily.
People’s Review Print Edition
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