By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 7: The one-on-one meeting of two chairmen of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, held on Monday ended inconclusively again.
Like previous meetings, Monday’s talks between the two chairs failed to fix the cracks seen in the party.
The next round of negotiations between the chairs is scheduled for Tuesday. Talking to The Rising Nepal, party spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the talks between the two chairmen ended inconclusively today.
The meeting lasted for around two hours, said Shrestha, adding that another round of talks would take place tomorrow. However, the details of the meeting were not made public.
After the chairmen failed to forge consensus, the Standing Committee meeting of the party scheduled for today was put off again. The fifth meeting of the Standing Committee being held at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar has been postponed until July 8, said PM’s Press Advisor Surya Thapa.
The meeting was put off as NCP chairmen PM Oli and Prachanda needed further discussions to iron out the differences in the party, said Thapa, who is also the deputy chief of NCP publicity department.
The meeting of the 44-member standing committee has continued since June 24 on the agendas of party unity, government performance review, COVID-19 prevention and treatment, Millennium Challenge Corporation and constitution amendment, among others.
The meeting has been postponed several times because the senior leaders of the party have been unable to mend the latest political rift within the party. Preparation is being made to address the dispute in the party and continue the Standing Committee meeting, said Thapa.
Since the prorogation of the parliament’s budget session, the top brass of the party have been holding a series of dialogues to sort out the intra-party feud in the on-going Standing Committee meet and the party leaders are exerting pressure to resolve the differences so as to keep party unity intact.
Despite continuous dialogue, the party leadership has not come closer to consensus, it was learnt.
It is said that Sunday’s meeting between the two chairmen had formed a task force, including two leaders each from the two sides—one led by PM Oli and another by Prachanda.
The task force was said to be formed under the General Secretary Bishnu Poudel, Energy Minister Barshaman Pun and Standing Committee members Shanker Pokharel and Janaradan Sharma, who were also present in the meeting.
Answering the query about the task force formed after Sunday’s meeting to narrow down the differences between PM Oli and Prachanda, Shrestha said officially he had not been informed about any such committee.
Commenting on the task force, Press Advisor Thapa said the task force was not a formal body.
Amid the internal disputes, the taskforce would do homework to sort out the differences, he added.
Meanwhile, the central committee members of the party on Monday continued their Satyagraha at the party’s head office in Dhumbarahi.
A group of central committee members on Friday launched the Satyagraha asking the top brass of the party to sort out the differences and save the party unity. The Satyagraha had begun at 2:00 and concluded at 4:00 pm, said Premal Khanal, central member of NCP.
Similarly, a signature campaign has been launched on Monday calling for the central committee meeting and with a view to strengthen the party unity. The campaign was launched by a group of central committee members, asking the senior leaders to rebuild trust and call the meeting of the central committee immediately.
The senior leaders must call the central committee meeting to sort out the latest dispute within the party, he added. According to Khanal, more than 100 central committee members, including Lekhnath Neupane, Bijay Poudel, Thakur Gaire, Ram Kumari Jhakri, Jagannath Khatiwada, have expressed their solidarity with the signature campaign that began at the party head office Dhumbarahi.