Meeting of ruling CPN MPs to be held today, Prachanda-Madhav also informed 

KATHMANDU: A meeting of the parliamentary party of the ruling CPN led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is scheduled for today. Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai said that the parliamentarians of both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly have been invited to the meeting to discuss the role of the CPN Members of Parliament in the session.

He informed that this news was sent to all the CPN MPs including Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal as per the instructions of party leader KP Sharma Oli at the meeting to be held at Lhotse Hall of the Parliament Building. The Prachanda-Madhav faction, on the other hand, held a meeting on Friday and selected Prachanda as the party leader.

According to Bhattarai, the CPN has the same parliamentary party as the other parties have not filed any petition in the process of removing the party leader.

The Parliament Secretariat has recognized Bhattarai as the Chief Whip of the CPN. CPN MPs are divided on both sides. The Prachanda Madhav faction has claimed that its group has 115 MPs from both the houses. The Oli faction has a similar claim.

Assessing the situation so far, the Prachanda-Madhav faction has 87 MPs in the House of Representatives and 24 in the National Assembly, which totals 111. Similarly, Oli has 83 MPs in the House of Representatives and 24 in the National Assembly, which totals 107. 

In the House of Representatives, Lal Babu Pandit and Tulasi Thapa Gautam have not opened up on either side while in the National Assembly, Bamdev Gautam is neutral. These four will play a decisive role for the majority vote.

Photo courtesy : Rajan Kafle