Members of the ruling Nepal Communist Party Standing Committee have refused to accept the political document of the two chairmen after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli refused to accept his weaknesses both as a party chair and head of the government.

The meeting, which was supposed to conclude on Thursday after Oli would respond to the queries of the committee members, but angered by the party chief’s ‘unconvincing’ speech they refused to accept the document. The prime minister tried to convince the leaders about his unilateral move for around three hours, but his defence of the move failed to convince them.

“He insisted on implementing all the decisions taken by the party and government which irked the SC members,” said a committee member of the party. Most of the standing committee members had demanded Chairman Oli consult the party leaders while making crucial decisions in the government.

On Wednesday, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, in his two-hour address to the committee meeting, had assured the leaders that the political document would be revised incorporating all the issues they had raised.

Leaders Bamdev Gautam, Bhim Rawal and Ghanashyam Bhusal had opposed Oli’s urge to endorse the political document. Rawal had even warned Oli to come up with differing views on the government’s involvement in the controversial Universal Peace Federation summit if he refused to self criticise.

Dahal later proposed that the discussion be continued on the document and other organisational issues. Oli had reiterated Dahal’s proposal to complete the unification process within mid-January and complete gatherings of all the lower committees by mid-February and begin national campaign for two months till mid-April.