Meeting of Nepal ruling party to solve political crisis ends inconclusively

The much-awaited Central Secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) ended inconclusively on Saturday after embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's one-on-one meeting with the party's executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" failed to end the protracted political tussle between them.

The meeting at Prime Minister's official residence at Baluwatar has decided to discuss all the agendas in the Standing Committee meeting to be held at the party's central office in Kathmandu's Dhumbarahi on Sunday, NCP Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said.

The Central Secretariat meeting discussed the problems in the party but could not reach any conclusion, he said.

NCP executive chairman and former premier Prachanda and Prime Minister and chairman of the party Oli met one-on-one for around four hours before attending the Central Secretariat meeting, party sources said.

The intra-party tussle peaked in the ruling NCP after the dissident faction led by Prachanda and senior leader and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal demanded Oli's resignation as the head of the government and the party's chairman.

The Sunday's Standing Committee meeting will discuss two separate papers presented by Prachanda and Oli making allegations against each other during previous meetings.

In his 19-page political document presented on November 13 at the party's Secretariat meeting, Prachanda criticised Oli for failing to properly run both the government and the party. He even accused Oli of corruption.

Oli, however, denied the allegations and challenged Prachanda to legally prove the graft charges or apologise.

Last week, Oli had rejected Prachanda's accusations that he was running the government without consulting the party, and instead blamed his rival for non-cooperation in handling the party's affairs.

The prime minister had submitted a separate 38-page political document in response to the allegations made by Prachanda.

In June, Oli claimed that efforts were being made to oust him after his government redrew the country's political map by incorporating three strategically key Indian territories.

India termed as "untenable" the "artificial enlargement" of the territorial claims by Nepal after its Parliament unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it.

The NCP, formed after the merger between Oli led CPN-UML and Prachanda led CPN (Maoist Centre) in May 2018, is divided along the two factions led by Oli and Prachanda. The Prachanda faction enjoys a majority in the nine-member Secretariat, the highest decision-making body of the party.

After several rounds of negotiations, the Standing Committee of the party on September 11 endorsed a 15-point decision drafted by a six-member task force which was formed to resolve the long-standing dispute between the two factions.