National Assembly (NA) member Bam Dev Gautam has called a national convention for left unity.
“He has stressed on left unity before as well. He has called the convention for that even now,” Gautam’s personal secretary Deepak Tamata told Setopati. “Even those who are in the campaign for left unity but are affiliated to different parties will also come.”
Gautam had also called a similar gathering in February 2021 to put pressure for unity when internal dispute in the then CPN—formed after unification of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center)—was near boiling point with chairman KP Sharma Oli leading one faction that was challenged by the faction of another chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The Dahal-Nepal faction had clear majority in CPN and had even expelled Oli. Gautam was neutral even then. He is not active in UML after the Supreme Court (SC) invalidated unification of CPN in March 2021 restoring the two parties to the state before unification.
Gautam is not in UML also due to the provision that prohibits leaders above 70 years from active politics.
