Issues within the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) intensified after Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was expelled from the general membership by the rival faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Sunday for "anti-party activities".
The decision was taken at the Standing Committee meeting of the faction of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by former prime ministers Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal after Oli failed to give an explanation to his recent anti-party moves as sought by party leadership, said Ganesh Shah, a senior standing committee member of the party.
The Prachanda-led faction on January 15 sought clarification from Oli alleging that he was carrying out activities that go against the party's policies. The faction decided to remove Oli even from the ordinary membership of the party after he chose not to furnish any clarification, party sources said. Oli-led CPN-UML and Prachanda-led NCP (Maoist Centre) merged in May 2018 to form a unified Nepal Communist Party following victory of their alliance in the 2017 general elections.
Oli's internal troubles
Oli is facing a lot of issues internally. There is growing rift between him and Prachanda. Prachanda has a tight hold over the party, while the prime minister's faction—under increasing public duress owing to COVID-19 failures—is fearful of a coup attempt. Prachanda has been critical of Oli's coronavirus handling, and has time and again spoken about lack of coordination between the government and the party, and he was pressing for one-man one position system to be followed by the NCP. Prime Minister Oli had turned deaf ear towards Prachanda's advice to form an all-party committee to monitor the country's COVID-19 situation and the government's strategy to contain it.
On Tuesday, Prachanda demanded Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate". Besides Prachanda, senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Bamdev Gautam and Narayankaji Shrestha also asked Oli to provide evidence of his accusation and asked to quit the power.
Besides the border, there are other issues at play too within the NCP. Oli wants the Parliament to ratify the $500 million US Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement, while the Prachanda faction fears it is an American move to push Kathmandu into its sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and away from China. In fact, Nepal's biggest foreign policy challenge going forward will be dealing with the contending initiatives of China’s BRI and the US Indo-Pacific strategy (with key players like India, Japan and Australia).
In the midst of all this, the Kalapani issue was a godsend for Oli to pitch up a nationalist frenzy and divert attention from the intra-party and civilian discontent issues plaguing his administration. The parliament move to ratify a new map showing Kalapani as a part of Nepal also allowed the NCP to put on a united face in the House.
-Inputs from agencies
