The faction of Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal is set to make Surendra Pandey CPN general secretary.
The faction's central committee meeting Thursday afternoon will remove Bishnu Paudel from the post of general secretary and replace him with Pandey, according to a CPN source.
Paudel has remained with the faction of KP Sharma Oli faction as the ruling party has virtually split in recent days.
Standing committee members Pandey, Bhim Rawal, Barsha Man Pun and Janardan Sharma were said to be in running for the post. Nepal had proposed Rawal for the post while Dahal wanted either Pun or Sharma elevated.
But backing of Senior Leader Jhala Nath Khanal is said to have been crucial for Pandey's elevation. Khanal, who was ranked higher than Nepal as senior leader after unification of the-then CPN-UML and the Maoists, seems to have had his say on general secretary as he agreed for elevation of Nepal as chairman over him.
The Dahal-Nepal faction had removed Oli as CPN chairman and replaced him with Nepal on Tuesday. It then unanimously elected Dahal as parliamentary party leader replacing Oli on Wednesday.
The Oli faction has also removed Narayan Kaji Shrestha as spokesperson and replaced him with Pradeep Gyawali.
