Nepal PM Oli gives party’s rival faction two days to withdraw support to opposition

Ahead of Supreme Court’s final decision on Parliament dissolution, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Friday gave a two-day deadline to the CPN-UML rival faction to withdraw their names from the petition seeking to reconstitute the Parliament and appoint opposition leader as Prime Minister of Nepal. 

A central committee meeting chaired by PM Oil instructed the Madhav Kumar Nepal faction who signed in favour of Opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba to withdraw their signatures within two days. 

The opposition alliance of 146 lawmakers have signed in the writ petition in the supreme court demanding the appointment of Deuba as the Prime Minister. Of them, 61 lawmakers belong to Nepali Congress, 48 to CPN (Maoist Center), 23 to CPN-UML, 12 to JSP and one to the Rashtriya Janamorcha Party.

They have also challenged Prime Oli and President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s House dissolution move and have demanded to reinstate the House of Representatives.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister said meaningful initiatives are being taken to unite the party.  

“The first need is unity, the second is unity and the third is unity,” said PM Oli. 

However, the Madhav Kumar Nepal faction did not attend today’s meeting. 

Referring to the Nepal faction, Oil said,“They are carrying out vile activities to overthrow their own party.”

After the meeting, spokesperson Pradip Gyawali said, "We have decided to inform all concerned that in such a multi-party system, the signatures of the party members contrary to the party's decision cannot have any recognition or meaning. 

Meanwhile, a five-judge constitutional bench of the court hearing the petition is likely to close the hearing this week and deliver the verdict by Monday.