CPN-UML Central Secretariat Meeting Discusses Party Reorganization and Former President Bhandari's Membership

Kathmandu. The CPN-UML Central Secretariat meeting, called for 1 PM on Monday, started nearly half an hour late. The reason for the delay was the late arrival of Vice Chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal) and Deputy General Secretary Lekhraj Bhatta at the meeting venue, Oli's residence in Gundu.

Immediately after Thapa and Bhatta arrived in Gundu, the meeting began, and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel read out the 11 agenda items for the meeting. After Pokharel presented the agenda, Oli began his address.

During his address, Oli spoke for over an hour alone. He discussed national and international politics extensively. He then connected it to party matters.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the election results of February 21, the formation of the government by Rastriya Swatantra Party, and the work of the government led by Balen Shah, he interpreted his arrest as political revenge.

He also commented that the government's behavior towards UML and UML leadership was not political. After Oli spoke, other secretariat members took turns expressing their views on the country's politics, the role of political parties, election results, and government actions.

Although there was no agenda item to discuss former President Bidya Bhandari's membership, Chairman Oli himself brought up the issue during the meeting. While expressing his views, he emphasized party unity and stated that former President Bhandari's membership would be opened.

“We are currently in a difficult and challenging situation. There is no alternative to moving forward with party unity to overcome this challenge,” Oli said towards the end of the meeting. “Former President Bhandari expressed her desire to take membership. Why stop her now? The process is also complete. Let's not stop her and let's continue her membership.” Some secretariat members were surprised by Oli's sudden proposal.

“We couldn't understand why she was stopped earlier and why she is being allowed now,” a secretariat member told RatoPati. “It might also be an attempt to divert attention from the issues being raised against him.”

General Secretary Shankar Pokharel presented 11 agenda items for discussion, including the seniority of office bearers, election review, membership renewal and expansion, division of work among office bearers, formation of a constitutional amendment task force, construction of party office building, formation of the central office and policy study and research institute's director committee, and nomination of members to the organization department, informed Deputy General Secretary Lekhraj Bhatta.

Some secretariat members indicated that demands for Chairman Oli's resignation had begun within the party. However, due to time constraints at Monday's meeting, the matter could not be discussed, according to one member.

“Overall, the issue of party restructuring was raised by almost all members. Everyone had the intention of discussing the overall restructuring of the party by making it an agenda,” said the member. “However, due to lack of time, it was decided to discuss further in the next meeting, and nothing more was done.”

As General Secretary Shankar Pokharel is going to Dang on Tuesday, it was stated that the next meeting will be held on May 8 to decide on further agendas. “The meeting went very well. After the chairman presented good points, everyone agreed that his points were correct.”