Prime Minister (PM) and CPN Chairman KP Sharma Oli has intensified political meetings immediately after returning from a week-long Singapore visit.
Oli, who started political discussion with another Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday itself, is holding a meeting with senior leaders from the erstwhile CPN-UML on Tuesday. Oli will hold discussion with Dahal after the meeting with former UML leaders to conclude the remaining works in party unification, according to a Baluwatar source.
The secretariat meeting called for Tuesday was postponed citing need for internal consensus after the meeting between Dahal and Oli.
"PM is in the mood of concluding everything by holding a series of meetings. He has, therefore, intensified discussions immediately upon his return," a member of PM's personal secretariat confided.
The last secretariat meeting on July 29 had asked General Secretary Bishnu Paudel to talk with central leaders about their wish and prepare a report after the meeting failed to decide about leadership of the party's departments including the school department.
Dahal and Paudel have separately talked with leaders about their wish, and the latter has already prepared the report that was scheduled to be presented to today's secretariat meeting.
The majority of CPN standing committee members during their interaction with Paudel have claimed for leadership of the party departments and opined that secretariat members should not be overburdened with responsibility of leading the departments.
Leaders have already agreed to hand over leadership of 18 departments to former UML leaders and 14 to Maoist leaders but they have yet to agree about leadership of the 33
rd department.
Oli is adamant that secretariat member Ishwore Pokharel should lead the school department while Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal insists that another secretariat member Narayan Kaji Shrestha should get the department.
Former Maoist leaders vehemently oppose appointment of Pokharel saying a person who has been lobbying to make people's multiparty democracy the united party's guiding principle should not be made chief of the school department but former UML leaders are not unanimous on Pokharel.
Senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal, who is also a member of the nine-strong secretariat, has already stated that he will accept the responsibility if the party decides to hand over the department to him despite already agreeing to head the policy and academy department.
