KATHMANDU, June 30: The ruling CPN-UML has officially dissolved the 10th General Convention Committee and called a meeting of the party’s existing central committee for Friday.
According to UML Spokesperson Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, a meeting of the 10th General Convention Committee held at Prime Minister KP Oli’s official residence in Baluwatar made a decision to convert the existing 10th General Convention Organizing Committee as the party’s Central Committee (CC). The new CC includes 23 former Maoist Center leaders who decided to be part of the UML after the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UML had decided to dissolve the 10th General Convention Committee that the party Chairman Oli had unilaterally formed by dissolving all the party committees elected by the party's general convention. This comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the action taken by the 10th General Convention Organizing Committee against a few lawmakers in the Provincial Assembly was invalid.
CPN (Maoist Center) elects 29 CC members from Karnali Province
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The rival faction-led by Madhav Kumar Nepal had long been demanding that the 10th General Convention Committee be dissolved and the various party committees formed by the convention be revived. The decision, however, has not created an environment to save the party unity, according to the rival faction leaders.
The UML, which was revived after the Supreme Court's verdict to invalidate the then Nepal Communist Party born out of a merger between the then CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) in 2018, has witnessed a serious rift within the party as the Oli-led faction is taking actions one after another against the leaders of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction accusing them of being involved in factional politics.
On March 12, the Oli-led faction nominated 23 new members to the party’s Central Committee (CC). A meeting of the party’s CC members close to Oli made a decision to nominate 23 former Maoist leaders who chose to join the UML as CC members and strip off the responsibility of all leaders close to senior leader Nepal.
This further soured the relations between Oli and Nepal in the UML. The decision to suspend even general membership of senior leaders Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and others has pushed the intra-party rift to the verge of a party split.
Although the Nepal-led faction had earlier demanded that all party committees be reinstated as they were after the general convention to save the party unity, the rival faction still does not seem convinced with Oli’s move.
UML Vice Chairman Bhim Rawal said there is still no ground to be convinced with Oli’s move. He argued that Oli had not addressed any of the issues they raised in the meetings of the Task Force formed earlier and that nothing has been said about the decisions that were taken unilaterally after the apex court’s order on March 7 that invalidated the unity between the UML and the Maoist Center.
