CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has summoned Koshi Chief Minister Hikmat Karki to Kathmandu for discussions as internal dispute over the provincial government continues to intensify.
After receiving Oli's message through the party's General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, Chief Minister Karki is set to travel to Kathmandu on Tuesday.
According to a source close to the chief minister, Karki will meet with Chairman Oli, General Secretary Pokharel, and other senior party leaders in Kathmandu. Party leaders say the meeting is expected to determine whether Karki will remain in office or be replaced.
Although Oli is in favor of replacing Karki with the UML parliamentary party's deputy leader, Til Kumar Menyangbo, as chief minister, Karki has remained firm in refusing to resign despite mounting pressure. He has maintained that he will abide only by an institutional decision of the party, not an individual directive.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the UML parliamentary party and provincial leadership at the party office in Biratnagar on Monday, Karki claimed that he had received no direct instruction from Oli to step down.
Karki also argued that he was appointed chief minister not as the parliamentary party leader but under Article 168(5) of the Constitution on the basis of majority support in the provincial assembly. He said that the government would therefore continue to function within its constitutional framework.
