CPN Chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has reached Khumaltar to meet fellow Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday. Oli will discuss the escalating internal dispute in the ruling party while at Dahal's residence.
Oli has rarely ventured out of the PM's official residence since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. He had gone to the residence of Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam in Bhainsepati on July 28 to woo Gautam to his camp when the internal dispute had last escalated.
Oli has gone to Khumaltar after Dahal during their latest meeting on Friday reminded that he always come to Baluwatar and pointed that Oli should also visit his residence, according to a Balwuatar source.
The internal dispute has reached boiling point after Oli on Tuesday unilaterally issued the ordinance about Constitutional Council with a provision that allows decision in the Constitutional Council with support of the majority of the existing members without discussing the ordinance in the Cabinet meeting.
The existing Constitutional Council Act required presence of four members apart from the PM to constitute quorum, and decision can only be taken through consensus.
Oli had unilaterally brought the ordinance, and President Bidya Devi Bhandari hastily authenticated it, after Speaker Agni Sapkota did not attend the meeting called Tuesday morning apparently under instruction of CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
The ordinance was widely condemned by the opposition parties and ruling CPN alike. The majority of CPN secretariat members held meeting at Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal's residence Tuesday evening and demanded immediate withdrawal of the ordinance.
Oli finally made an about turn and pledged to withdraw the ordinance in the standing committee meeting on Wednesday after knowing that the faction of Dahal and Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal prepared to demand special House session and register no confidence motion against him.
But he has yet to withdraw the ordinance.
