CPN Chairmen KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal will separately meet the party leaders summoned from Karnali after registration of no confidence motion against Chief Minister (CM) Mahendra Bahadur Shahi.
Dahal talked with CM Shahi and other leaders at his residence in Khumaltar Thursday afternoon. Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was also present in the meeting. "We went after he called us. PM is also expected to summon us but the time has yet to be fixed," CPN central committee member Niraj Acharya, who is from Nepal's faction, told Setopati after attending the meeting. "We will go even there if called."
All the leaders summoned from Surkhet have reached Kathmandu.
Lawmaker Yam Lal Kandel, who leads the campaign against Shahi, was not present in the meeting at Khumaltar though.
Dahal listened to the leaders and told them that he will talk with Oli and summon both the sides jointly. "The plan is that the two chairmen will first talk separately and then meet jointly probably tomorrow," a source close to Dahal confided.
The two chairmen on Tuesday had written to CM Shahi, Kandel, Gulab Jung Shah who was fired from chief whip by Shahi, Minister Prakash Jwala and lawmaker Chandra Bahadur Shahi instructing them to report to the party's central office in Dhumbarahi by Thursday keeping everything as it is.
The leaders supporting CM Shahi arrived on Wednesday while those backing Kandel arrived only Thursday morning.
Lawmaker Chandra Bahadur Shahi said the leaders have not been called by Oli yet. "We arrived in the morning. We didn't go to Khumaltar. We will go to Baluwatar if PM calls," he stated.
Eighteen CPN lawmakers including 15 from erstwhile CPN-UML and three from CPN (Maoist Center) on Sunday registered no confidence motion at the parliamentary party against CM Shahi who is a former Maoist. CM Shahi on Monday removed chief whip of ruling CPN Gulab Jung Shah and replaced him with lawmaker Sita Nepali in response.
CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal are seeking withdrawal of the no confidence motion and have already instructed leaders of their respective faction to withdraw the proposal. Eight of the 15 erstwhile UML lawmakers, who registered the motion, are from the Nepal faction.
CPN has 33 lawmakers in the 40-strong provincial assembly with 20 from erstwhile UML and 13 Maoists. Kandel, who was a central leader of UML for a long time and a minister at the center, expected to be the CM as UML alone had majority in the province. But Shahi was made CM despite the then Maoists having just 13 lawmakers as part of the power sharing agreement that gave the post of CM to UML in four of the six provinces where the two parties together secured majority and to Maoist Center in two provinces.
The 15 erstwhile UML lawmakers who signed in the no confidence motion include seven from the Oli camp and eight from the faction of Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal.
