UML top leadership in bid to mend strained ties

The CPN (UML) top leadership has begun consultations in a bid to remove the bitterness wthin the party. 

In this connection, the factions each led by party chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal have held discussions at the UML main office at Dhumrabarahi here this morning.

The two sides had been sparring after a meeting of the Oli side made changes to the party's central committee office-bearers, nominating the leaders from the Maoist Centre who had sided with UML to the central committee and also amended the party statute, without the participation of the Nepal-led side following the Supreme Court's decision on March 7 of scrapping the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and revival of the UML and the Maoist Centre. The UML and Maoist Centre had united to form the NCP before this.

The top-notch leaders of the UML have come together for the first time for consultations regarding keeping intact the party unity and resolving the acrimonies after the reinstatement of the House of Representatives and the revival of the UML by the Supreme Court.

Party general secretary Ishwor Pokhrel, leader Bishnu Prasad Poudel, Subas Nembang, Pradip Kumar Gyawali from the Oli side and senior leader Nepal and leaders Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Ghanashyam Bhusal and Surendra Pandey from the side of senior leader Nepal participated in the discussions today.  

UML central member Khimlal Bhattarai said the discussions today would help make the party reunited by removing the bitterness and lack of communication of the past. "There are no ideological and conceptual differences among the top leaders as such. The differences is only on the working style and attitude. Today's discussions would make the party a united whole," he said. 

Another central member Thakur Gaire believed that the discussions initiated today would help foster understanding among the top leaderships after the relations among them became strained due to the acrimony between the two sides since some days.

Party chair Oli has called a meeting of the central committee for March 20 while the senior leader Nepal side is organising the national gathering of paty leaders and cadres on March 17 and 18.