Thapa trying to revive his group in NCP

Kathmandu, 1 August: Home Minister and party’s secretariat member Rambahadur Thapa is trying to revive his old group in the then Maoist Center, reports Ramkrishna Adhikari in the Annapurna Post daily.
After witnessing groups and sub-groups in the ruling Nepal Communist Party, Thapa has also wished to revive his group.
There existed three groups in the ruling party. One group is led by party chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, another group is led by party co-chairman Pushpakamal Dahal and the third group is led by Madhav Nepal. In the meantime, Rambahadur Thapa has desired to develop a fourth group in the party.
When Oli, Dahal and Nepal groups were polarized on two poles, Bamdev Gautam and Thapa have also felt the need of their own groups.
In the process of reviving his group in the party, an informal gathering was organised by Thapa at his residence in Pulchowk on Thursday. Around two dozen leaders closed to Thapa had attended the gathering. The discussion continued for eight hours. In the then Maoist Center, Thapa had his own group. Now, he is trying to reorganize the very group after the unification of the then UML and Maoist Center.
There are 35 central committee members in the NCP, who are considered to be closed to Thapa.
Furthermore, four central committee members including Kiran Rai and Padam Rai, who had joined the unity process from different political parties, are also closed to Thapa.
Dev Gurung, Pampha Bhushal, Hitman Shakya, Kulprasad KC, Surya Subedi, Dilip Prajapati, Sabitri Kafle, Indra Aangbo, Lekhnath Neupane, Yubraj Bhattarai, Parbati Thapa, Amrita Thapa, Gyanu Basnet, Daba Lama, Hari Chuman, Maya Prasad Sharma, Ramdeep Acharya, Naresh Bhandari, Suresh Aalemagar, Maheshwor Dahal, Yosoda Subedi, among others, had attended the gathering organised by Thapa.
The gathering discussed the role of the new group in the party. Three different opinions were floated in the gathering. One section remarked that there should be a separate group of former Maoist Center supportive to Dahal, whereas, another group expressed the view of developing a separate group in between Oli and Dahal. Accordingly, the third group remarked that as the unity process has not been completed, there is the need to move forward for the unity national convention by supporting Oli.
Thapa, the organizer of the gathering, had expressed the view for developing an environment for an early unity convention ensuring Dahal’s chairmanship in the party and ensuring commitment for the next prime ministership for Dahal after Oli’s tenure.
Thapa made clear that party unity is important, therefore, he is seeking formula to keep the party united, however, by ideology, he is closed to Dahal.
Nevertheless, any move (from Oli) for MCC endorsement, dissolve of the parliament, presidential rule, an ordinance will not be acceptable for him, Thapa said.
Thapa said that keeping the party united is his priority, incase, the accident is inevitable, there is the need to make clear his group’s position.
People’s News Monitoring Service