<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110111152/636cd8419c7e80680e092e32jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1250" height="492"/>Many of you who cannot make head or tale of the recent trends in Nepali politics have SMSed me in the past week to ask: Will Share Budder become prime minister again? Is it possible for Nepal to finally graduate to middle-income country status? And also, does God exist?As a media anal-ist it is incumbent upon me to refer you to a more competent asstrologer who has predicted that the planets are favourably aligned to make Deuba prime minister of Nepal up to a total of seven times. At last count he had only made it to #4, so he has three more match points to go.Meanwhile, for comrades who believe in the dictatorship of the politburo and like to define their parties with prefixes like ‘unified’ and ‘united’, Nepal’s Communists are splitting faster than uni-cellular amoebas through the process of binary fission.In fact, recent detonations within the NCP have set off a runaway thermonuclear chain reaction. Other sub-atomic comrades, however, are coming together to create even more heat and sound through nuclear fusion.There was already another party called Nepal Communist Pawti when they conjugated, which means they now have to come up with a completely new name. There is therefore no other option but to distinguish the various incarnations of the party with creative suffixes in brackets. As well-wisher, the Ass offers below a range of choices:Nepal Communist Party (Un-unified)Communist Party of Nepal (Unfit)Communist Party of Nepal (Big Plop)Underfed Marxist-Leninists (UML)Unified Marxist-Leninists (Oily)Unified Marxist-Leninists (Nepal)Unified Marxist-Leninists (India)Unified Marxist-Leninists (Shaivite)Communist Party of Nepal (Brahma-Vishnu-Maheswar)Nepal Communist Party (Royalist)Nepal Communist Party (Gang of Four)Nepal Communist Party (Revolting)Communist Party of Nepal (Pvt Ltd)Nepal Communist Party Marxism-Stalinism-Maoism (MSM)Communal Party of Nepal (Polpotist-Maduroist-Kim Il-Sungist)However, even dyed-in-red communists are beginning to admit that the time may have finally come for the party to re-brand itself after political philosophers like Groucho Marx and John Lennon, while at the same time remaining true to its revolutionary antecedents. Allow me to suggest the following formulations:Nepal Communist Party (Groucho-Lennonist)Communicative Party of Nepal (Facebook-TikTok)Nepal Communicable Party (Covid-19)Nepal Commuter Party (Monorail)The acronyms will get to be even more complicated if, and when, the various permutations of the next coalition government become clearer:UML-JSP (KPO)MC-NC-JSP (BRB)MC-NC-JSP (RCP)MC-NC-JSP (SBD)UML-MC (JNK)UML-MC (PKD)UML-MC (MKN)The only problem is that the 2017 Constitution has an open-defecation free law that prohibits horse-trading. The Ass takes umbrage at the speciesist language insinuating that it is only horses that get to be traded. How about us donkeys, aren’t we also good enough to be bought and sold by the highest bidders? Why isn’t anyone ass-trading? Why discriminate?To which I am sure you are dying to also ask: Is God a he or a she?

The Ass

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NCP (Pvt Ltd)

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bf0154b0ad905ca02efedjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHHETRI</figcaption></figure>The Nepal Communist Party factions which had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/playing-politics-in-a-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pulled back from a split</a> several times in 2020, may finally decide on Tuesday to go their separate ways.Things reached a point of no return on Sunday after Prime Minister Oli <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-had-no-other-option-pm-oli/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dissolved the Lower House</a> after finding out a rival faction of the NCP was registering a no-confidence motion in Parliament. As acrimonious exchanges continue <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/alpha-males/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">between leaders</a>, and street protests against the prime minister’s move intensify, the two parties are holding separate meetings of their Central Committees on Tuesday.“The struggle will now be for the two factions to claim the party name and symbol by a show of strength at the Election Commission,” says Tikaram Bhattarai, a lawyer. This is against the backdrop of 11 writ petitions that have been filed in the Supreme Court, all challenging the prime minister’s dissolution of the Lower House as being unconstitutional and undemocratic. The apex court is set to hear the cases on Wednesday, and the future political course that Nepal takes may be decided then.However, given the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/running-to-remain-in-place/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">irreconcilable differences</a>, the NCP’s separate conclaves could decide that after a 31-month marriage of convenience, a divorce may be the best course of action.The erstwhile UML forged an electoral alliance with the Maoist party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ahead of the 2017 elections, and it swept all three levels of government with a near two-thirds majority in the federal Parliament and six out of the seven provincial governments.The party formally united later that year and Oli took over as prime minister, sharing the party chairmanship with Dahal. However, the marriage has been rocky from the start. Oli apparently refused to abide by an understanding that he would step down half-way into his term, while Dahal was irritated by the prime minister not consulting him on key appointments and decisions.Twice before, when the NCP was on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-communists-on-verge-of-split-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the verge of a split</a>, it was the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi who mediated a truce</a>. This time, it looks like even she has given up. Prime Minister Oli is having a meeting with his supporters at his official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday morning, while the Dahal faction is meeting in the afternoon at a wedding banquet hall in Babar Mahal.If the party does split, it will not strictly be with former UML and Maoist going their separate ways. Two ex-prime ministers from the UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal have joined up with Dahal, while Oli has some Maoist leaders like Lekhraj Bhatta still supporting him.Dahal’s strength comes from Madhav Nepal loyalists backing him – and several of them like Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai, Agriculture Minister Ghanshayam Bhusal, along with five other ministers resigned from the Cabinet on Sunday.However, there are some wild cards. It is not clear yet which way the former UML heavyweight and NCP Secretariat member Bamdev Gautam will go. There is also considerable uncertainty about where the loyalty of Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, a former Maoist, lies. If there is a split, Thapa is said to prefer not to join Oli’s new party if it is going to be called the UML. In July, Oli had already revived his old part in the Election Commission, it appears just for this contingency.Other Maoists like Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Haribol Gajurel and Mani Thapa have sided with Oli, but have not made their position clear yet and may be waiting to see which way the wind blows. Oli’s closest allies at the moment are Lumbini Province Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel, Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, as well as former Speaker Subhas Nembang. The two NCP Central Committee meetings are expected to announce disciplinary action against Dahal and Oli. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-outraged-by-pm-oli-move/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dahal-Nepal faction</a> is reported to have already taken its letter to the Election Commission, and the Oli group is said to be preparing to do the same. The Dahal-Nepal side is now trying to put pressure on the Supreme Court to have the Lower House reinstated.

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NCP headed for messy divorce

<figure><img width="1500" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181152/636be9259c7e80680e0878a4jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Illustration: DIWAKAR CHHETRI</figcaption></figure>The Nepal Communist Party factions which had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/playing-politics-in-a-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pulled back from a split</a> several times in 2020, may finally decide on Tuesday to go their separate ways.Things reached a point of no return on Sunday after Prime Minister Oli <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/i-had-no-other-option-pm-oli/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dissolved the Lower House</a> after finding out a rival faction of the NCP was registering a no-confidence motion in Parliament. As acrimonious exchanges continue <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/alpha-males/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">between leaders</a>, and street protests against the prime minister’s move intensify, the two parties are holding separate meetings of their Central Committees on Tuesday.“The struggle will now be for the two factions to claim the party name and symbol by a show of strength at the Election Commission,” says Tikaram Bhattarai, a lawyer. This is against the backdrop of 11 writ petitions that have been filed in the Supreme Court, all challenging the prime minister’s dissolution of the Lower House as being unconstitutional and undemocratic. The apex court is set to hear the cases on Wednesday, and the future political course that Nepal takes may be decided then.However, given the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/running-to-remain-in-place/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">irreconcilable differences</a>, the NCP’s separate conclaves could decide that after a 31-month marriage of convenience, a divorce may be the best course of action.The erstwhile UML forged an electoral alliance with the Maoist party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ahead of the 2017 elections, and it swept all three levels of government with a near two-thirds majority in the federal Parliament and six out of the seven provincial governments.The party formally united later that year and Oli took over as prime minister, sharing the party chairmanship with Dahal. However, the marriage has been rocky from the start. Oli apparently refused to abide by an understanding that he would step down half-way into his term, while Dahal was irritated by the prime minister not consulting him on key appointments and decisions.Twice before, when the NCP was on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-communists-on-verge-of-split-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the verge of a split</a>, it was the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi who mediated a truce</a>. This time, it looks like even she has given up. Prime Minister Oli is having a meeting with his supporters at his official residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday morning, while the Dahal faction is meeting in the afternoon at a wedding banquet hall in Babar Mahal.If the party does split, it will not strictly be with former UML and Maoist going their separate ways. Two ex-prime ministers from the UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal have joined up with Dahal, while Oli has some Maoist leaders like Lekhraj Bhatta still supporting him.Dahal’s strength comes from Madhav Nepal loyalists backing him – and several of them like Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai, Agriculture Minister Ghanshayam Bhusal, along with five other ministers resigned from the Cabinet on Sunday.However, there are some wild cards. It is not clear yet which way the former UML heavyweight and NCP Secretariat member Bamdev Gautam will go. There is also considerable uncertainty about where the loyalty of Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, a former Maoist, lies. If there is a split, Thapa is said to prefer not to join Oli’s new party if it is going to be called the UML. In July, Oli had already revived his old part in the Election Commission, it appears just for this contingency.Other Maoists like Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Haribol Gajurel and Mani Thapa have sided with Oli, but have not made their position clear yet and may be waiting to see which way the wind blows. Oli’s closest allies at the moment are Lumbini Province Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel, Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, as well as former Speaker Subhas Nembang. The two NCP Central Committee meetings are expected to announce disciplinary action against Dahal and Oli. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-outraged-by-pm-oli-move/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dahal-Nepal faction</a> is reported to have already taken its letter to the Election Commission, and the Oli group is said to be preparing to do the same. The Dahal-Nepal side is now trying to put pressure on the Supreme Court to have the Lower House reinstated.

<img width="1050" height="526" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2c79c7e80680e083ecajpeg.jpg" alt=""/>A group of 13 civil society members have called for Nepal’s political parties to set aside their rivalries and work to address the health and economic emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Nepal’s governance has nearly ground to a halt because of infighting between two top leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), as well as a power struggle between factions in the opposition Nepali Congress (NC).The NCP is on the verge of a split, with Prime Minister K P Oli and party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal locked in a struggle for supremacy.‘Economic advance and social progress in any country are dependent upon social and constitutional constancy, whose precondition is political stability,’ the statement said, adding that a prime minister’s removal is a matter for the parliamentary party and not the party itself. ‘At a time when political instability has begun to shake the public’s trust in the political system itself, and carries the possibility of weakening a Constitution that is as yet in its initial stage of implementation, we call on the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) and all other parties represented in Parliament to recognise the dangerous trend and move to protect the Constitution,’ the statement adds.The 13 signatories include former senior bureaucrats like Rameshore Khanal, human rights activists like Kapil Shrestha and Renu Adhikari as well as academics, lawyers, doctors and journalists.‘The personal ambition of the top-level leaders ... have cumulatively created a sense of hopelessness among the public at large,” the statement goes on. ‘It is obvious that the NCP leadership has not been mindful of the weakening of democratic values emanating from the political instability to which they have contributed.’The activists called on the political leadership to rise above personal ambition and concentrate on the good of the country and people. Otherwise, it warned, Nepal was in danger of being sucked into the geopolitical tensions in the region as the country’s giant neighbours take sides in the infighting.‘With the escalation of geopolitical tensions within South Asia and the Asian continent as a whole, a politically unstable Nepal will not be able to adequately address evolving challenges,’ it warned. ‘We ask the Government of Nepal to develop a balanced foreign policy on the basis of the principles of non-alignment, to develop relationships of trust with neighbouring countries as well as the democratic forces around the world.’The civil society activists also called for a generational change in the leadership of the parties to bring young blood, new energy and fresh perspectives.It says: ‘All political parties including the ruling NCP and main opposition NC should now develop a specific roadmap to achieve generational transformation in leadership ... hold their general conventions as announced, and in a way that will generate a new crop of leaders.’The statement says that instability has impacted on governance, and also led to the shrinking of public space. The government has not been able to provide effective leadership for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and thus protect the public, it said.The statement called upon all political parties to abandon opportunism and unite to tackle the challenges of the pandemic. The civil society signatories included: Arjun Karki, Bipin Adhikari, Bishnu Prasad Baral, Dambar Chemjong, Devendra Biswakarma, Kanak Mani Dixit, Kapil Shrestha, Kripa Ram Tharu, Mohan Singh Thebe, Rabindra Karna, Rameshore Khanal, Renu Adhikari and Sushil Pyakurel.

Civic appeal for stability and governance

<figure><figcaption>Illustration: BHANU BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>While Nepal hurtles towards the 1,000 Covid-19 deaths mark and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/kcs-fast-highlights-nepals-covid-19-failure/">hospitals run out of beds</a>, the country’s two top leaders are engaged in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-political-tug-o-war-continues/">a fight to the finish</a> that is once more threatening to split their ruling Nepal Communist Part (NCP).<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/at-midpoint-nepal-pm-struggles-to-deliver/">Prime Minister K P Oli</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/running-to-remain-in-place/">party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal</a> had buried their hatchets last month agreeing to a one-post-one-person formula – letting Oli serve out his term as prime minister, and Dahal to lead party affairs.However, the truce did not last long. In the latest episode of this epic saga, Dahal has reportedly staked a claim to the prime ministership, while Oli has threatened to split the party before that happens.To be sure, this is not the first time the NCP has come close to binary fission. Oli has <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-seat-of-power/">mastered the craft of brinkmanship</a>, using ordinances, anti-Indian ultra-nationalism, re-registering the UML at the Election Commission in August, or dangling lollipops in front of Dahal’s loyalists to stave off previous challenges to his supremacy.However, matters had been coming to a head ever since there was an attempt last month to unseat the Dahalist chief minister of Karnali Province, a move  blamed on Oli getting provincial assembly members from his faction to pass a vote of no confidence. Dahal deftly defused this by convincing his ally, the former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, to get his followers in the assembly to withdraw support for the no-confidence vote.The prime minister then went ahead and appointed new ambassadors, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-pm-shuffles-ministers-around/">brought in new ministers</a> into the cabinet and reassigned secretaries. Dahal was miffed because he felt Oli should have taken these decisions in consultation with the party and not unilaterally.Party insiders had hoped that in the Dasain spirit, the two leaders would meet privately over the holidays and sort out their grievances as they have done in the past. However, the communication gap between the two has got even wider in the past two weeks.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emissary and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/covid-19-and-the-new-great-game/">spy-in-chief Samanta Goel’s surprise visit to Kathmandu</a>, and his three-hour meeting with Oli on 27 October aroused further suspicion among Dahalists that the prime minister was up to some mischief with geopolitical backing.They were outraged about being kept in the dark, and ridiculed his perceived ‘nationalism’ by meeting an Indian spymaster. Dahal was already angry about not just the lack of consultation over the three cabinet appointments last month, but was livid that he had to learn about it from the media after the swearing in by President Bhandari.NCP mediators like former speaker Subhas Nembang and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel finally convinced Oli and Dahal to meet for tea at Baluwatar on Saturday, hoping that they would be able to defuse the crisis.However, it looks like by then the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/you-stab-my-back-i-stab-yours/">mistrust was too deep-rooted</a>. On Sunday, the two leaders had got members of their factions to leak to the media their own versions of what transpired in the meeting at Baluwatar, and later that night in a fiery phone call.Dahal reportedly told members of the party secretariat at a meeting at his residence that the NCP was in ‘grave crisis’ because Oli had turned down his request to call a standing committee meeting, and had told him he was not going obey the party’s directives, and may even split the NCP.Bishnu Poudel, whom Oli appointed Finance Minister last month, took to Facebook to also warn that the NCP was on the verge of a split, and entreated senior leaders to honour the sacrifices of the cadre to ‘defend the unity of the party’.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181112/636bdfb89c7e80680e083db5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="301"/>Poudel is regarded as a prime mover of the unification of the former UML of which he and Oli were members, and the ex-Maoists led by the former guerrilla chieftain Dahal. Formal UML-Maoist unification came about after their electoral alliance in the 2017 federal and local elections gave the parties a near two-thirds majority.Dahal’s next move has been to call a meeting of the NCP Central Committee to decide on the internecine power struggle once and for all and prevent a split. He and Madhav Nepal’s followers have a majority in the Central Committee, and it is unlikely Oli will agree to that meeting.For his part, Oli told supporters on Sunday that it was actually Dahal who had said that if he did not hand over the prime ministership, he would split the party.Even if the party does split, it does not look like it will be a clean division between the former UML and Maoist members. There are some ex-Maoists who are with Oli, and former UML cadre loyal to Madhav Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/alpha-males/">Bamdev Gautam</a> have defected to the Dahal camp.Insiders say that the real reason for the latest crisis is outright disagreement between Oli and Dahal about an impending Cabinet reshuffle. Dahal wants to recall two former Maoists that Oli has wooed to his fold: Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and the Commerce and Supply Minister Lekh Raj Bhatta.He wants them replaced with two of his own trusted lieutenants, and had warned Oli not to dare induct two other former Dahalists who have lately been speaking publicly in support of Oli: Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and Haribol Gajurel.Baluwatar sources told Nepali Times the meeting on Saturday and the subsequent phone call had turned into a shouting match because of this wrangling.The source quoted Oli as telling Dahal: “It is the prime minister’s prerogative who to bring into the Cabinet and which minister to remove. You want two of my ministers removed? All right then, I will remove three of yours.”Oli was alluding to three of his Cabinet ministers who are staunchly pro-Dahal: Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun, Forest Minister Shakti Basnet and Water Supply Minister (and Dahal daughter-in-law) Bina Magar.A Dahal supporter who was also at the meeting confirmed this exchange, adding: “That is where it all started on Saturday, and the quarrel escalated to the point where they started talking about splitting the party in two.”A NCP Standing Committee member says that in the current system of government it is indeed the prime minister who should have the final say in whom to sack or keep as minister based on performance. But the party has to provide him guidelines and give him the authority to do that.Oli and Dahal do not have ideological differences as such any more, it is more of an ego-clash, mixed with a power struggle for supremacy in the party. Both are trying to exert their authority through plum Cabinet berths ahead of elections in 2022.Said the member: “Even though the two parties were united, they are still behaving like Maoists who want their own comrades in senior positions. It is proof that the party never really united in substance or spirit.”

Nepal’s communists on verge of split, again

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109131156/636ba4269c7e80680e073652jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1025" height="741"/><figcaption>Illustration: BHANU BHATTARAI</figcaption></figure>After teetering at the brink of a split several times, the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) appears to have stepped back from the edge once more. But no one knows for how long.After the latest of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/enough-already/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/enough-already/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGqnTk_1mYrNh2hMm2QQ5PW_PdjGQ">numerous showdowns last week</a> during which two rival factions held parallel meetings, factions led by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/push-and-pull-of-nepali-politics/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/push-and-pull-of-nepali-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGPV4FdiEDnv_Xew0pMnoIGcCMB_A">Prime Minister K P Oli and party co-Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal</a> appear to have decided not to let their relations deteriorate any further.They have not yet buried the hatchet, but they at least seem to be willing to smoke the peace pipe. Oli and Dahal may also have realised that the NCP itself is being harmed by a surge of negative comments on social media and op-eds about their ego-clash holding the party and country hostage at a time of multiple crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.The two leaders as well as members of their factions seem, therefore, to have retreated from the situation on 28 July in which Prime Minister Oli cancelled a scheduled Stranding Committee meeting that was to deliberate on demands for his resignation, but the Dahal faction went to Baluwatar anyway and held the meeting.The standoff in the Standing Committee appears to have woken everyone up to the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-ruling-party-on-verge-of-split/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-ruling-party-on-verge-of-split/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGPS8ZkzpbL2krOvFcIw8d9e0tHBQ">real possibility of a party split</a>, which all NCP leaders (including Oli and Dahal) want to avoid at all costs. Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi seems to have got the message across <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/is-china-now-micro-managing-nepal-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEGBziqad0_uOtczkaFfLpMLufCBw">through her intense lobbying</a> last month that Beijing would like the party to stay united.“We have overcome a big hurdle by at least agreeing to disagree, and move forward,” said Central Committee member Kiran Gurung, one of the younger crop of leaders trying to find a compromise. “The party came very close to the edge of the cliff, and stopped itself from falling.”The Oli and Dahal factions are now said to be using the ceasefire period brokered by second tier leaders to tone down their rhetoric, and hold mediation talks through interlocutors. However, there does not seem to be a clear road map yet.There is a realisation that although it is a confrontation between two factions, it is the two co-chairs Oli and Dahal who have to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/alpha-males/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/alpha-males/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHWm2SdXNX7xAkXRu3UIfDO52SUDg">sort out their differences and build trust</a>. Neither side wants to believe the other because they have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/you-stab-my-back-i-stab-yours/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/you-stab-my-back-i-stab-yours/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1596452361144000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHG4j_ftQj_wflHuge7M7sFfuqSEg">double crossed by each other so often.</a>“We have hit rock bottom in this party power struggle, from here there is nowhere to go but up,” says Mani Thapa, another NCP leader who is trying to broker a deal.Party insiders interviewed for this article say that NCP leader and former home minister Bam Dev Gautam’s middle of the road six-point statement on 28 July was a catalyst to reduce tension in the party. The plan would allow Oli to stay on in both posts, while meeting Dahal’s demand for election to sole party chair during the party convention.Prime Minister Oli paid Gautam a surprise visit at his residence on 29 July after he issued the statement to gauge reactions from fellow comrades to the plan. And it was Gautam and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa’s decision to side with Oli for now that seems to have isolated Dahal.Dahal is also suspicious that Oli may pull another fast one by tempting Madhav Kumar Nepal away from his faction by dangling the carrot of party executive chair instead of him. By making himself a kingmaker in this feud, Gautam has also reportedly got an assurance of being nominated to the Upper House from where he can either be made Finance Minister in place of Yubaraj Khatiwada, or even prime minister.Gautam has a reputation for flip-flopping, but has pivoted himself into an important role in the party. Oli has reportedly expressed a desire to step down in February after the party’s unity convention in November, and this commitment appears to have brought down the temperature somewhat.Says another NCP leader Thakur Gaire: “I don’t think the differences between Comrades Oli and Dahal is so irreconcilable that the party has to split over them. The ball is now both their courts.”

ncp-split

NCP (Pvt Ltd)

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