PM Oli seek support from Bamdev Gautam

Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has met party leader Bamdev Gautam and seek support from him to sort out ongoing dispute within the party.

According to Gautam’s secretariat, the prime minister called Gautam at his residence in Baluwatar on Sunday morning and offered to help him as he was in a difficult situation.

Prime Minister Oli had a discussion with Gautam for more than an hour. Prime Minister Oli also sought Gautam’s advice on how to move forward in the current situation. According to Gautam’s secretariate, Gautam has suggested that the issue be discussed at a party meeting.

Earlier on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Oli had arrived for a meeting with President Vidyadevi Bhandari. Entering Shital Niwas at around 4 pm on Saturday, Prime Minister Oli had a two-hour discussion with President Bhandari.

Sources claim that the Prime Minister last talked about the controversy with the president.

Some leaders of the CPN (Maoist) have been criticizing the President for increasing his interference in the party by meeting CPN (Maoist) leaders including Prime Minister Oli. Prime Minister Oli has been holding discussions with the President as soon as the party is in trouble. Earlier, when there was a dispute in the party, Prachanda and Oli had reached an agreement with the President as a witness.

A series of letters exchanged between the two presidents were made public after a meeting of the secretariat committee held on Friday against the wishes of Prime Minister Oli. Though the party had been submitting the same report at the secretariat meeting earlier, the party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had also submitted a separate report.

Prachanda had submitted a 19-page political report accusing Prime Minister Oli of forming factions in the party, not consulting the party in the process of running the government and protecting the corrupt.

Earlier, five secretariat members, including Prachanda, had called for an immediate meeting on Friday. Later on Tuesday, Oli wrote a letter to all five, accusing them of not cooperating in running the party and the government. He also accused the party of being involved in factionalism without fulfilling its responsibilities.

The same letters were exchanged with the leaders at Saturday’s meeting. The meeting was adjourned on November 19.