Kathmandu. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also the chair of Nepal Communist Party (NCP), has called the meeting of the secretariat of the party eventually after a long tug of war. The meeting has been called for Friday, 4 pm.

“We have received a message informing about the secretariat meeting to be held tomorrow (Friday),” senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal told DCNepal.

Earlier, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, fellow chair of KP Sharma Oli, had decided to call the party secretariat meeting after Oli hadn’t been able to meet the deadline proposed by the five secretariat members in written form. Prachanda had met Prime Minister Oli on Thursday and urged to call the secretariat meeting.

Senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Bam Dev Gautam and Narayan Kaji Shrestha were to take part in the meeting called by Chair Prachanda, in case PM Oli didn’t call the meeting.

PM Oli is battling hard to to create his majority in the the permanent committee as he is in minority in the secretariat. He has arranged for talks with permanent committee members of former Maoist and Madhav Nepal groups, to convince them to lobby on his side.

News source close to PM Oli said that he wants to form a majority in the permanent committee and make decisions in the party as per his advantage, as he is in minority in almost all committees of the party. However, for that, a lot of effort is required. Currently, the coalition of Prachanda and Madhav Nepal’s faction easily forms a majority in almost all committees.

The Oli faction is trying to lure the former Maoist members of the permanent committee to their side by offering them some lucrative posts. They are also trying to entice some from Madhav Nepal’s group to have the required number of permanent committee members.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Oli has met and discussed twice with senior leader Nepal alone and once in a group. He had underscored the need of the unity of the former United Marxist and Leninist (UML) group and requested Nepal to help him. Leader Nepal, however, responded saying that Oli had been wrong in forming alliance with Prachanda in the past and his trying to form a pact with Nepal at present was also improper.

“Oli joined hands with Prachanda yesterday with a motive to end Madhav Nepal’s political career and humiliated and tormented him. Now that he is in difficulty, he seeks help from his old UML comrades. One cannot believe his words,” a source close to leader Nepal said.” The prime minister has proposed to work together, but looking at his past actions and the present situation, he cannot be believed so easily.”

Supporters of Madhav Nepal point out numerous complaints against Prime Minister Oli. They allege that Oli did not give any credit or care a bit about Nepal who had actively taken part in the party unification. While reshuffling the Cabinet and in the political appointments in Constitutional Commissions, the PM appointed members of his group without consulting other leaders and even went against their suggestions, they say. According to a leader of the Madhav Nepal group, Oli has proposed to join hands now just to ward off the danger he is facing

The deputy-chair of NCP Foreign Department Bishnu Rijal, considered to be close to senior leader Nepal, notes that instead of forming alliances with one group or another, it is high time that leaders formed a strong Oli-Prachanda-Nepal bond and sought to resolve the problems damaging the party.

“They have to work together and end the dispute within the party,” Rijal told DCNepal. They have to share their authority and power and move forward rather than keeping the party in a deadlock, he added.