- CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli rejected a task force report, labeling it a "scrap of paper" and refusing to present it to the committee.
- Deputy Secretary-General Yogesh Bhattarai and other leaders challenged Oli, demanding collective leadership and criticizing the party's decline under his authority.
- Tensions escalated over a proposal to convene the National Representative Council, which Oli perceived as a maneuver to remove him from leadership.
- The meeting adjourned without resolution on the disputed report, exposing deep internal rifts within the party leadership ahead of Monday’s follow-up session.
Kathmandu: The CPN-UML’s central office in Chyasal, Lalitpur, was the scene of growing tension during the party’s Secretariat meeting. Leaders had gathered in the meeting room, and the atmosphere appeared normal at first. But it changed soon after the meeting began.
At the start of the meeting, the leaders discussed the report prepared by the ‘Election Review and Party Reorganization Task Force.’ As the task force was preparing to submit the report, party chair KP Sharma Oli appeared unwilling to accept it.
Oli called the report a ‘scrap of paper’ and refused to receive it.
Discontent soon began to grow inside the meeting.
Oli insisted that the report should not even be taken to the Central Committee. Deputy Secretary-General Yogesh Bhattarai and other leaders opposed his position.
Bhattarai questioned the party’s current situation and expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership’s working style.
He said the party was becoming weaker, but the leadership had not shown enough responsibility for the situation. He said the time had come to move the party forward through collective leadership.
Bhattarai said in the meeting, “You have already taken the party to the abyss. How much longer will you threaten and intimidate us? Instead, clear the way and let us run the party collectively.”
Other leaders also spoke after Bhattarai.
Vice Chairmen Prithvi Subba Gurung, Raghuji Pant and Gokarna Bista, Deputy Secretary-Generals Lekhraj Bhatt and Raghu Bir Mahaseth, and Secretary Rajan Bhattarai, among others, supported his position.
The discussion was no longer limited to the task force report.
The issue of calling a meeting of the National Representative Council became another major point of disagreement.
Oli also took a firm position on this issue. He suspected that the proposal to call the council meeting was part of a plan to remove him from the party leadership.
Oli said in the meeting, “Isn’t the plan to call the National Representative Council, turn it into a general convention and then remove me? I understand everything. This is a plan to remove me.”
Bhattarai again responded to Oli’s remarks.
He questioned why Oli was reluctant to call a meeting of the National Representative Council.
“Why are you so reluctant to call the National Representative Council, which was elected by 75 percent of the general convention representatives? Why are you afraid of your own representatives?” Bhattarai asked.
Secretary Bhanubhakta Dhakal, who is considered close to Oli, took a somewhat different position.
Dhakal said there was no need to become so angry over the issue of the National Representative Council. He said the task force report did not mention changing the leadership or removing the party chair. He proposed that the report should be taken to the Central Committee for discussion.
But no agreement was reached on the proposal.
Oli remained firm in refusing to accept the report. Other leaders, meanwhile, insisted that the report should be taken forward for formal discussion in the party.
The debate continued, but the meeting failed to reach a conclusion.
The Secretariat meeting was eventually adjourned, with the next meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday.
The task force report is now unlikely to move forward immediately. At the same time, the dispute over calling a National Representative Council meeting has brought the internal differences within the CPN-UML further into the open.
All eyes are now on the next Secretariat meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday.
