The upcoming standing committee meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party is expected to be a stormy affair. Irked by party Co-chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s way of handling the party and the government, NCP leaders have long been demanding that he convene the committee meeting to face their questions. The meeting has been scheduled for Saturday.

The party leaders said they had a litany of complaints against Oli, both as the country’s prime minister and the NCP co-chairman.

Oli has been deliberately avoiding the standing committee meeting, party leaders have claimed.

The committee meeting has taken place only once since the NCP was formed in May. The majority of the party decisions have been taken through the secretariat meeting where the standing committee members have little say.  

Senior NCP leaders, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and Narayan Kaji Shrestha, have repeatedly voiced their grievances on the way the two co-chairmen, Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, have been running important decisions through the nine-member party secretariat without discussing them with the standing committee members.  

Khanal said the party leaders will also raise the issue of “one-man, one-position” at the standing committee meeting.  

While most of the NCP leaders are without any job descriptions, Khanal noted that Oli has been occupying three major positions- the prime minister and the leader of the parliamentary party and the co-chairman.

“If the government fails, the party will suffer the most,” Khanal warned. Some party leaders are still doubtful whether the standing committee meeting will sit on Saturday. “The meeting has been postponed many times. So the Saturday’s meeting could be postponed as well under a trumped-up pretext,” said Ghanashyam Bhusal, a standing committee member.  

“If the meeting did take place, Oli will face a tough time defending his actions both in the government and the party,” he added.

Oli was allegedly compelled to call the standing committee after senior leaders—Nepal,  Khanal,  Shrestha and Bamdev Gautam— boycotted the party’s secretariat meeting on December 8.

“We are in favour of running the party in a systematic manner. Let’s see what results our decision to stand up against the attitude of the party leadership will bring,” said Shrestha, who is also the spokesperson for the party.