CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had a long meeting with President Bidya Devi Bhandari at the Shital Niwas on Wednesday.
It is not yet clear who took the initiative for the meeting but sources at the Shital Niwas confirmed that two had a one-on-one meeting for an hour Wednesday afternoon. Both the leaders have yet to disclose what they discussed during the meeting.
Dahal, who has been resting at home after suffering from flu and not seen in public since reaching the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) nine days ago before Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli's kidney transplant, has had the meeting with guarantor of the truce with Oli almost four months back when there is tension between the two CPN chairmen.
Dahal and Oli had reached Shital Niwas on November 19, 2019 ahead of division of responsibilities between the two CPN chairmen and Cabinet reshuffle. President Bhandari was kept witness as guarantor of the agreement that was announced in the secretariat meeting held immediately after Oli and Dahal returned from Shital Niwas.
Dahal was made chairman with executive rights. Oli and Dahal remain chairmen, and Oli continues to be ranked top but Oli had handed over the executive rights to Dahal, as per the agreement.
But Dahal has been complaining that Oli has been unilaterally running the party despite him being made the executive chairman while Oli has been accusing Dahal of trying to interfere in the government's functioning by refusing to select a speaker who would have made it easier for the government to work, unnecessarily stoking controversy over the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and trying to remove Yuba Raj Khatiwada as finance minister.
Both Dahal and Oli are trying to woo senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal due to their dispute. Nepal is now close with Dahal having long been sidelined by Oli.
The Oli camp is now trying to woo Nepal saying the erstwhile CPN-UML leaders should stand together. Nepal, meanwhile, has said a solid proposal should arrive for that and demanded he be made party chairman with Oli remaining PM.
The Oli faction has told that it can accept Nepal as the chairman after the general convention but not now while Nepal has made it clear he cannot reach an agreement on assurances alone and is adamant he be made chairman now.
