Task Force Report Delayed Amidst Leadership Debate

Kathmandu. The task force led by Vice Chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, which collected suggestions regarding election review and party strengthening, has delayed the report writing. The task force, which started collecting suggestions from June 14, completed the collection on July 8. After completing the suggestion collection, a task force meeting was held on July 10, assigning the task of writing the report to task force coordinator Thapa and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel. Although Thapa and Pokharel were supposed to prepare the report within June, sources say that the report writing work is only half done as of Wednesday. ‘The report was supposed to be prepared within this month and another meeting was to be held, but we are hearing that the report writing work is only half done so far’, said a task force member, ‘It seems the report will be ready only in the first week of July.’ It is reported that many suggestions collected by UML across the country have stated that the party cannot run with the current leadership and that the leadership should be changed. However, Chairman KP Sharma Oli, task force coordinator Thapa, and other leaders are of the opinion that the issue of leadership change should not be included in the report at this time. Although Oli and Thapa are against leadership change, the majority of the task force members have reached the conclusion that party restructuring is mandatory. This has increased the interest in the UML circle regarding what the conclusion of the report will be.