Kathmandu – A central committee meeting of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) called by Prime Minister and NCP chairman KP Sharma Oli has started at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar. The meeting is currently underway.
Leaders of erstwhile CPN (Maoist Center) Top Bahadur Rajamajhi, Lekhraj Bhatta and Mani Thapa have also reached Baluwatar for the meeting.
The former Maoists leaders have joined the Oli camp and participated in the central committee meeting that marks the formal beginning of the split of the ruling NCP.
Earlier on Monday, both rival factions led by NCP Executive Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Oli had held the meeting of the parliamentary party separately. While Bhatta had participated in the meeting of the Oli camp, Raymajhi and Thapa did not attend the meeting of any camp.
Both factions are preparing to take action against each other through their central committee meeting going to be convened separately. These separate meetings are interpreted as a formal beginning of the split of the ruling NCP that was formed after a merger between erstwhile CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist-Center) nearly three years ago.
The central committee meeting convened by Oli-led camp is also preparing to add new central committee members in the party.
Expelling Prachanda and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal as well as other leaders of the rival camp, the meeting of the Oli-led camp is appointing central committee members that fall vacant after taking action against them.
However, the Oli-faction has not made the names of the would-be central committee members public.
