CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has met Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam at the latter's residence in Bhainsepati a week after fellow Chairman KP Sharma Oli reached there.
Gautam had given a six-point advice to the warring chairmen that largely favors Oli to stop the internal dispute in the party last Tuesday. Oli had reached Gautam's residence later in the evening with wife Radhika Shakya and was joined by CPN General Secretary Bishnu Paudel in what Baluwatar source insisted was a family gathering.
A CPN source confided that Gautam urged Dahal for implementation of his six-point advice during the meeting Tuesday.
Oli has recently been proposing that the current intra-party dispute should be resolved through secretariat meeting. He apparently presumes that he has majority in the nine-strong secretariat or at least counts on Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa to remain neutral and not speak against him during secretariat meeting.
The faction of Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, on the other hand, wants the dispute to be resolved through the standing committee where it has overwhelming majority.
Dahal seems to have visited Gautam on Tuesday to win back Gautam to ensure that Oli is again in minority even in the secretariat.
Gautam proposed that Oli should serve the full term as prime minister (PM), Oli also should remain chairman until the next general convention, and the general convention should be held in consensus.
He proposed that Pushpa Kamal Dahal should remain chairman with all the executive rights until the general convention.
He proposed that the party should not unnecessarily intervene in the work of PM but advised that the secretariat should be consulted before decision on issues of international importance. He also proposed Cabinet reshuffle.
"Reshuffle of the Cabinet, and political and constitutional appointments should be done on recommendation and consultation of the party secretariat. The secretariat should be consulted before presenting the government's policies and programs and the budget to the House," he suggested.
He also advised that party meetings should not be held in the PM's residence. "Party meetings from now onward should be held at the party office."
The latest proposal appeared as another volte-face by Gautam who has been switching camps in the past few years. Oli had proposed to make Gautam the PM to break the alliance against him in April end when he was similarly in a tight spot.
But he later reneged on the promise and Gautam had returned back to the anti-Oli alliance. What prompted the latest change of heart in Gautam has yet to be known.
