E-Kantipur

DHULIKHEL, KAVRE, JUL 25 -

The national conclave of the ruling CPN-UML failed to sort out longstanding differences between the party establishment

led by Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and his rival camp led by senior leaders KP Sharma Oli and Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The two factions have differences mainly over amending the party statute and internal power sharing. Both the factions are sharply divided on whether to provide executive powers to Khanal or adopt a collective leadership.

The conclave, which was expected to come up with an understanding, has decided to refer the disputed issues to the party’s National Representatives Council, the second most powerful body in the party after the General Convention.

During the conclave, Khanal supporters demanded an amendment to the party statute as per the spirit of the eighth general convention held in Butwal. They argued that it was modified to weaken the elected party chairman. According to them, the Butwal general convention had envisioned a powerful chairman.

“The general convention had elected the chairman with executive powers. Khanal is not a ceremonial chairman like Manmohan Adhikari,” said Vice-Chairman Bam Dev Gautam, who is close to Khanal. Gautam said that before the general convention the leaders had agreed to elect an “executive chairman”.

The Oli-Nepal faction has taken Gautam’s proposal seriously. “I went through both the proposals of Bam Dev Gautam and Surendra Pandey which are completely against the spirit of the general convention, democratic norms and values and collective leadership,” Nepal told journalists.

Gautam and Pandey have registered their suggestions in the conclave and demanded delegating maximum rights to the elected party chairman. In his six-point proposal presented in the conclave, Pandey demanded providing executive powers to the chairman, including the authority to nominate 20 percent of the total members in each committee.

Oli and Nepal, who hardly spent a few hours at the close session remained busy meeting journalists in their rented room.  Talking to journalists, Nepal termed Khanal a “dictator”. “He is the first among equals, but not the executive chairman. Why has he been postponing scheduled meetings time and again called by the general secretary?” Nepal asked. “This shows he is becoming a dictator within the party.”

The Oli-Nepal faction accuses Khanal of going against the

policy of the multi-post collective leadership adopted since the Butwal general convention. They have been demanding delegation of powers to all the elected office bearers equally.

Party leaders say the heated debates may force the party leadership to call a special general convention if the meeting of the national representatives slated in August in the Capital takes a decision to this effect.

Posted on: 2011-07-25 10:10

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