Nepal PM Oli on the brink; his party's co-chair Prachanda confirms 'uncertain future'

Amid the ongoing political upheaval in Nepal, Chairman of the Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal who is also popularly known as Prachanda, has opined that the party is in turmoil with an uncertain future due to the internal factions, after Thursday's meet. 

Dahal's remark comes after the second round of Standing Committee meeting on Thursday after having a separate meeting with President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

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"Today's meeting will be a historic one for the Nepal Communist Party. We are holding the meeting here at Prime Minister's residence but he is not present I had made multiple requests with him on the issue but he has been turning out from it," Dahal told the committee.

Nepal Communist Party was formed in 2018 from the unification of two leftist parties, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). However, since its formation, there has been an internal rift in the party and now an ordinance has been passed which would help split the party; however, Dahal says wants the party to be united.

"I had also asked him not to prorogue the ongoing meeting but they rejected and went ahead with it. It is learned that they are bringing on an Ordinance which helps to split the party, I have made it clear that I am against it," he said.

"It would a historic if we succeeded in protecting the party unity," he added.

At present, the party has the joint chairmanship of KP Oli and Dahal, but with the ongoing events, there has been a rising discontent among the top party leaders against Prime Minister KP Oli and the leadership has demanded the resignation of the prime minister. 

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KP Oli has blamed India for the political turmoil in Nepal, however, Dahal rubbished the blame and said the demand of resignation is due to the failures allegedly on a range of issues including the handling of the pandemic. KP Oli's controversial statements against India besides other things have not gone down well with the party leadership, according to the Himalayan Times. The senior leaders, including co-chair Dahal, Madhav Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal and Bamdev Gautam, asked the Prime Minister to step down from the post citing his 'failure' over various issues. 

The standing committee meeting planned for Thursday was cancelled and has been called for Saturday as the top brass of the party failed to forge consensus on the resignation of Prime Minister Oli.

(With ANI inputs)