Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli tried on Tuesday to consolidate his grip on the Communist Party of Nepal, incorporating his loyalists into a key party panel, even as the rival faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka ‘Prachanda’, announced the decision to replace him as party co-chair with former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis after Prime Minister Oli, 68, dissolved parliament on Sunday and decided to hold a two-phase general election on April 30 and May 10, a year ahead of schedule. In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Oli later defended his decision, insisting that he was “forced to seek a new mandate through elections, as attempts were made against my government, not to allow it to function properly. “.
“The dissolution of parliament and new elections were not my choice,” Prime Minister Oli said in his first remarks after the decision. The attempt to recruit Prime Minister Oli’s loyalists into key party panels, such as the central committee, began soon after.
The two factions of the communist party, one headed by Prime Minister Oli and the other by his rival, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, held meetings of their factions. Dahal’s faction has majority support in most party panels, including the 446-member central committee that met on Tuesday.
At the end of the central committee meeting, the Dahal faction announced the decision to replace KP Sharma Oli with Madhav Kumar Nepal as chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal. “A total of 315 members of the Central Committee have voted in favor of Madhav Nepal,” the spokesman said, stating that Prime Minister Oli will also face disciplinary measures.
Just hours before this meeting, Prime Minister Oli had also chaired a meeting of the party he had called. He announced a 1,199-member committee to organize the party’s general convention to strengthen its control, adding that the newly formed committee by the Oli faction adds 556 members to the existing 446-member Central Committee of the ruling party to give the prime minister control. controlling. .
But the Kathmandu Post nevertheless cited experts who insisted that Prime Minister Oli’s decision to recruit 556 members might not be successful.
The electoral commission can only recognize the expansion of the central committee if it has been expanded by a majority vote of the existing central committee or on the basis of the party statute authorizing Oli, as party chairman, to nominate new members. members of its Central Committee.
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