E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, MAR 20 -

On Feb. 26, as the top Maoist leaders drove off to Nepalgunj to participate in their party’s internal training programme, a crowd gathered near the venue to welcome and submit a memorandum to them.

An elated Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal (PKD), who was riding front got off the car when he saw the crowd. But the locals refused to give it to him. They said they were there for Baburam Bhattarai (BRB), who was riding in the backseat. It was a chastening experience for Dahal, who controls the party, but struggles to inspire confidence beyond it.

Bhattarai commands enormous respect among the population, but has negligible influence within the party rank and file. The incident epitomises the Dahal-Bhattarai rivalry: Two ambitious men, one with control of the most powerful party in Nepal, the other wildly popular outside it. The personality clash between Dahal and Bhattarai is not new. Only, it has become more pronounced since the party’s sixth extended plenum held in Gorkha last November. Bhattarai’s aides complain of a systematic and deliberate attempt to cut him down to size after the plenum. Cognisant of his weakness, Bhattarai has begun work to build his base. He has been trying hard to win over the party, but he is toiling against the Dahal and Mohan Vaidya factions.  On March 13, Bhattarai felt cut to the quick in his own home district, Gorkha. 

Bhattarai’s aides say he faced the same problem in Nawalparasi a few days earlier after the party headquarters ordered the district cadres not to meet or interact with Bhattarai. “But the cadres defied that order,” said a Bhattarai aide.

The establishment has been trying to stamp out support for us by issuing circulars in many districts that no party cadre should participate in Bhattarai’s progammes, the aide said. It is no secret that BRB has kept secret other attempts to humiliate him.

Bhattarai’s aide said cadres loyal to Dahal and Baidya boycotted programmes attended by Bhattarai. Last October, politburo member Haribol Gajurel barred Bhattarai from meeting his cadres in Biratnagar. Khagaraj Bhatta, secretary of the Seti-Mahakali State Committee of Maoists, said Bhattarai is facing anarchism at the hands of the party establishment. “These activities are being carried out at

the behest of the establishment. It should respect differing views inside the party,” said Bhatta. 

The treatment meted out to Bhattarai has exposed Dahal’s “autocratic tendencies”. Politburo member Ram Bahadur Karki, who is close to Bhattarai, said that the restrictive behaviour of the party establishment

is visible to everyone though Dahal’s men deny it.

Maoist Politburo Member Hari Bhakta Kandel said Bhattarai’s people are trying to unfairly project Dahal as an autocrat.

Posted on: 2011-03-20 08:36

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