Nepal Maoist party patches up intra-party feud

The United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) has patched up its intra-party differences that escalated mainly after the Nov 19 Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, party leaders Wednesday said.

After the party's unexpected defeat in the elections and chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda unilaterally selecting the party's lawmakers for Constituent Assembly, the party plunged into an intra-party crisis.

Top leaders of the party had engaged in a blame game over the party's poor performance in the election.

Senior party leaders Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha claimed that there was monopoly of Prachanda in the party's organisational structure and decision-making process, and demanded an end to Prachanda's monopoly.

For now, the rift has been averted after Prachanda said that he was ready to criticise himself for the party's election debacle as demanded by Bhattarai and Shrestha and run the party on the basis of collective leadership, Xinhua reported.

In a document which would be presented to the party's Central Committee (CC), Dahal said that he was ready to take greater responsibility for the party's defeat in the elections.

"In his political document, (the) party chairman has elaborated on the intra-party unity and rebuilding of the party in the new context," party spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota told the media Wednesday.

Earlier, Bhattarai and Shrestha warned that they would present a separate political document to the CC if their demands were not incorporated in Dahal's political document, which could have worsened the intra-party rift.

Now that Prachanda's political document did incorporate the issues raised by Bhattarai and Shrestha, both have made it clear that they would not bring the separate political document but would work to maintain intra-party unity.

The party, which became the largest party after the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections but slid to third position in 2013, is preparing to hold a general convention for rebuilding the party organisation.

"We are preparing to focus on revamping the party's organizations, purification of past malpractice and improving the lifestyle of leaders and cadres," said Sapkota.