CPN Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam has criticized General Secretary Bishnu Paudel for not convening party meetings in connivance with CPN Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli.
The five secretariat members had been demanding secretariat meeting since October. They held informal meeting after Oli refused to call one. General Secretary Paudel went with Oli and did not convene a meeting. The party finally called one for November 13, six days after the five secretariat members met Oli and submitted a letter demanding a meeting.
Speaking in the secretariat meeting on Saturday, Gautam complained about the delay in convening of secretariat meeting despite written request by the majority of nine-strong secretariat. "The party statute requires the general secretary to convene meeting after consultation with the chairmen if just a single member demands it with valid reasons to justify one. What can one tell someone who does not even have wisdom about such issues related to management?" he stated. "Such a big problem has been created in the party due to lack of making such arrangements. General secretary should not support the line that there should be no meeting."
The two chairmen have resorted to making formal allegations against each other in the secretariat meeting that has been convened subsequently.
Oli challenged fellow Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to legally prove corruption allegations or apologize for the allegations or be ready to face punishment if he doesn't apologize.
Oli stated in his response that criminal allegations cannot be discussed politically and said the party should adopt legal way for criminal accusations. He added that the criminal allegations should either be proved or there should be apology on that or Dahal should face punishment for groundless allegations if he doesn't apologize.
Oli also accused Dahal of nepotism in his response to Dahal's political proposal that he presented to the secretariat meeting Saturday afternoon. "There is nepotism in you. Making daughter-in-law minister, daughter mayor and nephew ambassador is not socialism," Oli's report accuses.
Dahal had presented a 19-page proposal with consent of the majority of secretariat members during the secretariat meeting on November 13 criticizing CPN Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli and slamming him for failing to properly run both the government and the party. He has also made corruption allegations against Oli in the proposal.
Oli has announced end of past agreements and understanding with fellow Dahal after the proposal and those in the Oli camp have been demanding withdrawal of the proposal.
Oli demanded time to respond to the political proposal submitted by Dahal during the last secretariat meeting on November 18. He claimed that Dahal's proposal has baselessly made serious allegations against him and he will have to respond to that with preparations.
The meeting, therefore, decided to give him 10 days to draft the response. Oli will present his response in the secretariat meeting today and both Dahal's proposal and Oli's response will be discussed in the meeting.
The party has also called standing committee meeting five days later and central committee meeting another seven days later.
The ruling party is again facing a grave crisis with Dahal claiming that PM Oli has proposed to split the ruling party even as Oli is in minority in parliamentary party, secretariat, standing committee and central committee.
Dahal, Khanal, Nepal and Shrestha have been together in the fight against Oli all the time while Gautam keeps on changing camps. Gautam is angry with Oli now after he was not inducted in the Cabinet in the latest Cabinet reshuffle.
Sources close to Oli, however, have claimed that Dahal has demanded the post of PM.
Dahal is reportedly aggrieved about the Karnali dispute, Cabinet reshuffle, Oli's meeting with Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Samant Kumar Goel, murder of a party cadre in Parsa and other issues.
Oli and Dahal had signed a five-point agreement at the time of unification of the then CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) on May 17, 2018. The two parties had unified to form CPN the next day on the basis of the five-point agreement.
The fourth point of the agreement mentioned that the two chairmen will lead the government as necessary on the basis of equality and equal period.
But Dahal had relinquished his claim for the post of PM after the two chairmen signed an agreement on division of responsibilities in presence of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on November 20, 2019.
Dahal was made chairman with executive rights. Oli and Dahal were to remain chairmen, and Oli to continue to be ranked top but Oli had handed over the executive rights to Dahal.
Dahal was to lead the party and chair party meetings while Oli would lead the government through the current term of House of Representatives, according to the agreement.
The party was then on the verge of split with Dahal aggrieved that Oli continues to run even the party unilaterally and the overwhelming majority of members during the last standing committee meeting seeking resignation of PM Oli.
The two chairmen then formed a six-strong task force in August to resolve internal dispute in the party. The standing committee meeting then took decision on the basis of the report submitted by the task force that recommended that Oli would serve the full five-year term as PM and Dahal would take the wheel of the party.
Dahal was to be fully active in party works but required to consult PM Oli who will remain a sort of ceremonial chairman. Similarly, PM Oli was required to move the government works forward consulting Dahal.
But Oli has unilaterally made appointments of ambassadors and reshuffled Cabinet without endorsement of Dahal since the standing committee decision.
