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Former PM Dahal increases rendezvous’, tightening his hold in NCP



Reporters Nepal: The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is immersing itself toward internal factionalism. The distance and the relationship between the two Chairs, current Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal seem to devolve that would prove to be disastrous for the future of the NCP. Former PM Dahal wants the past agreements to be implemented by his co-ChairCo, while PM Oli is bent on unilaterally taking control of power both in and out of the NCP.

Dahal who is now dissatisfied by the situation has stepped up rendezvous with senior leaders of the NCP to garner support. This has been seen publicly during programs and it has been evidently indicative of the drastic drop in the relationship between the two Chairs.

One of the fundamental agreements before party unification of the erstwhile Maoist and the United Marxist Leninist was power-sharing between Oli and Dahal for both the position of the Prime Minister and the position of the Chairman of the unified party NCP.

This has been stated several times by senior leaders of the NCP. Former Deputy Prime Minister and senior leader of the NCP Bamdev Gautam was candid regarding this arrangement. Those who are now close to PM Oli have backtracked and are not willing to accept the change in leadership. If an agreement was made in this regard then when the time is due it will be on the directions of PM Oli on what would be the next step.

Chair Dahal, on the other hand, had given an interview to the President of the Reporters Club and senior journalist Rishi Dhamala while PM Oli was out of the country on his India visit. In the interview Dahal and said that there was an agreement to the PM’s post for 2.5 years each, interchangeable between the two Chairs. This has been a widely contested issue within the NCP.

After winding up the Dashain festival Dahal had various interactions with PM Oli regarding the agreements that needed to be implemented. There were several one- to- one discussion in the PM’s official residence in Baluwatar but each time Dahal came out disappointed than before. According to the leaders that are close to Dahal, PM Oli has not been attentive toward implementing past agreements.

PM Oli has been unilaterally moving forward without listening to Dahal and hence there is a resolve to continue to bring it to a concrete conclusion irrespective of the drastic measures that may be taken in the process, this was said by a source close to Dahal to Nepal Reporters team.

In recent times there have been leaders that have been disappointed with PM Oli, and Prachanda now is looking to form a front which would include former Prime Minister and senior leader of the NCP Madhav Kumar Nepal and former DPM Bamdev Gautam.

Both the former PM’s Dahal and Nepal have met over two dozen times, and in these meetings, it is known that they have discussed ways to move forward to pressurize PM Oli to implement past agreements and to be a united block.

Prime Minister Oli has flown to Azerbaijan to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, and here Chair Dahal has been stepping up rendezvous with several senior members. The meetings are being mediated by former Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

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