Bam Dev Gautam has been expelled from CPN (Unity National Campaign) that he announced on Tuesday to pursue left unity.
Gautam was supported by Aam Nepal Party, CPN (Rastrabadi), Adhunik Nepal Samajwadi Party and Samajwadi Kendra Nepal while announcing the campaign.
The four parties on Saturday have expelled Gautam accusing him of trying to act arbitrarily in their name and resorting to machination to finish those parties. Supreme leader of Samajwadi Kendra Yubaraj Safal has replaced Gautam as the coordinator of the campaign.
"CPN (Unity National Campaign) was announced to bring all communist and socialist forces together but it was turned into a bargaining tool for power and government," Chairman of Aam Nepal Party Nilkantha Paudel told Setopati. "He met KP Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal in the name of this campaign, adopted a style of fraudulence and treachery. He played a game of finishing these parties stepping on the power of the parties affiliated with the campaign. He has, therefore, been expelled."
Adhunik Nepal Samajwadi Party Chairman Krishna Gopal Banjara has been made joint coordinator of the campaign, Paudel the spokesperson and CPN (Rastrabadi) Chairman Min Nath Devkota the secretary.
Gautam, who had been holding a campaign for left unity, announced CPN (Unity National Campaign) holding a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
He kept 75 central members including his wife Tulsa Thapa and son Haris Dev Gautam. The standing committee was 15-strong.
Gautam, who had lost the last House of Representatives (HoR) election from Bardiya on a CPN-UML ticket despite the party’s alliance with CPN (Maoist Center) with promise to unify after the election, was nominated to the National Assembly by President Bidya Devi Bhandari in September 2020 on recommendation of the then CPN government.
He was vice-chairman of both UML and CPN.
He had held a national convention for left unity a few days back. 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.
