Dahal dodges the danger

Seven standing committee leaders with him‚ Shrestha stays neutral

TIKA R PRADHAN

KATHMANDU: Unified CPN-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was till yesterday driven to a corner by his deputies, came out unscathed at the standing committee meeting of the party held today.

“Dahal today stood tall with seven standing committee members standing by him,” claimed Haribol Gajurel, a politburo member close to Dahal. “Vice-chairmen Mohan Baidhya and Baburam Bhattarai got support from only six standing committee members. Three stayed neutral.”

The Baidhya-Bhattarai alliance, however, had claimed to have mustered enough support, with another Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa in their fold.

According to Gajurel, Dinanath Sharma, Amik Sherchan, Lilamani Pokhrel, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Post Bahadur Bogati and Barshaman Pun vehemently opposed what they called Baidhya-Bhattarai alliance’s ‘immoral act’, including the signature campaign against the chairman. Shrestha, Thapa and Giriraj Mani Pokhrel maintained neutrality today, said Gajurel.

The six leaders of the alliance include Baidhya, Bhattarai, CP Gajurel, Dev Gurung, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and Netra Bikram Chand.

Nonetheless, Vice-chairman Shrestha refused to accept that Dahal had majority in the standing committee. He said there was an agreement among five office bearers not to speak during today’s meeting. “Things are moving ahead positively. The party will try to resolve all the outstanding issues through standing committee by forging an agreement among the leaders. If the standing committee fails to iron out the differences, the issues will be taken to the central committee,” said Shrestha. “We will first try to sort out the issues at office-bearers’ level.” But he admitted that there was danger of things getting complicated if the issues were taken to the central committee. “And this could invite serious division,” he said.

Standing committee member Pun said the issues would be presented at the central committee if the leaders failed to address them during Friday morning’s meeting.

Sources claimed that though the Baidhya-Bhattarai alliance had urged Chairman Dahal to resolve the issues through standing committee, the latter cited recent development and said he was for sorting out the problems through central committee.

(Published in The Himalayan Times on July 22, 2011)