Secretariat member of the ruling CPN Bam Dev Gautam, who is considered close to Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, seems to have shifted allegiance to another Chairman KP Sharma Oli.
Gautam, who opposed Oli when the latter proposed to rewrite the political document and keep people's multiparty democracy as the party's guiding principle in the political document, this week writing an opinion piece in Naya Patrika daily has argued that people's multiparty democracy should be the guiding principle even before the cadres have finished reading the political document.
Gautam's associates confide that Gautam is writing another piece to make his arguments stronger.
The political document prepared by a committee led by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal had kept socialism-oriented people's democracy as the party's ideology incorporating the people's multiparty democracy of the then CPN-UML and the people's democracy for the 21
st century of the then CPN (Maoist Center).
Oli did not want the document published as it was and proposed the amendment. He backed off and reluctantly accepted its unchanged publication as senior leaders Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and Gautam backed Dahal and opposed Oli's amendment proposal in the secretariat meeting.
Gautam, whose shifting of allegiance to Oli from the Nepal camp was instrumental in getting Oli elected as chairman of the then CPN-UML during the general convention, was close to Dahal after unification.
He was further alienated with Oli after the latter effectively vetoed his bid to get elected to the House of Representatives (HoR) through by-election in Kathmandu-7 after convincing CPN lawmaker from the constituency Ram Bir Manandhar to resign.
Manandhar had signed the document for resignation at Dahal's residence in Khumaltar with the latter's blessing.
Gautam had then made efforts to bring Dahal and Nepal together to challenge Oli.
But all that seems to have changed now. Oli, who was initially reluctant to make Gautam the head of organization department as proposed by Dahal and Nepal, has now agreed for that.
Gautam also seems to be making more rounds of Baluwatar than Khumaltar these days. "Prime Minister Oli himself has taken initiative for that," a Baluwatar source confided.
Dahal and the group of former Maoist leaders have been rattled by the opinion piece of Gautam at a time when Ishwore Pokharel was the only secretariat member to speak openly for making people's multiparty democracy the party's guiding principle.
"It is alright for a debate on ideology inside a communist party but it would have been better if he had not written so this soon," a source close to Dahal quoted him as saying during the discussion on Gautam's opinion piece.
But the group of former Maoists still hopes that he will not change camps. "Gautam comrade may not change camp now," a leader told Setopati.
But the response of a leader close to Gautam on being asked whether the latter has shifted allegiance to Oli camp says otherwise. "What's about him? Many will change camp by the next general convention," the leader stated almost confirming Gautam's joining Oli camp.
