CPN-UML chairman-elect KP Sharma Oli has secured a majority of seats in the 159-member Central Committee elected through the party’s ninth general convention that concluded on Wednesday.
However, both factions led by Oli as well as senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal share equal number of seats in the 15-member office bearers’ body in the Central Committee.
Outgoing party chief Jhala Nath Khanal, who will be positioned in the second rank after the chairman in the party, will be decisive at the party’s highest decision-making body. Even as Nepal faction bagged a majority of votes under the open competition category, Oli faction won many seats under women, Madhesi, Dalit, Muslim, backward region and Janajati quotas.
Of the total 35 members allocated under open competition quota, 18 members were elected from the Nepal panel and the remaining 35 from Oli’s faction.
Party leaders said besides Nepal, Rajendra Pandey, Lalbabu Pandit, Surendra Pandey, Raghuji Panta, Beduram Bhusal, Parshu Meghi Gurung, Prakash Jwala, Arun Nepal, Thakur Gaire, Gangalal Tuladhar, Nagendra Chaudhary, Tul Bahadur Gurung, Bijaya Poudel, Rajendra Rai, Yubaraj Karki, Som Prasad Pandey and Tanka Karki were elected under the open category from Nepal’s side.
From Oli’s side, youth leader Rabidra Adhikari, Pradeep Nepal, Kiran Gurung, Shankar Pokharel, Bishnu Rimal, Mukunda Neupane, Chhabilal Bishwokarma, Kashinath Adhikari, Mahendra Pandey, Agni Kharel, Binda Pandey, Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal, Ramnath Dhakal, Gopal Shakya, Surya Thapa, Rajan Bhattarai and Damodar Bhandari were elected as central committee members under the category.
Pokharel and Rimal, who contested for the post of deputy-general secretary and secretary respectively, had managed to secure central position based on votes gained in the convention.
UML’s party statue has a provision that the Central Committee will have 114 members and 45 alternative members. Alternative central committee members can express their views in the party’s meetings and discussions but do not enjoy right to vote when the party has to resolve disputed issued by voting.
Newly-elected party secretary Pradeep Gyawali said of the 114 Central Committee members, 67 were elected from Oli panel while the remaining 47 from the Nepal faction.
“We (Oli’s supporters) are in comfortable majority in the Central Committee,” Gyawali, a leader close to Oli, said. Oli faction was in majority even when Oli was defeated by outgoing party chief Khanal in 2009’s Butwal convention.
By the time the Post went to the press, the party’s election commission was struggling to make public names of the winning candidates.
Three ministers from Oli’s side—Health Minister Khaga Raj Adhikari, Industry Minister Karna Bahadur Thapa and Sports Minister Purushottam Poudel—have been defeated in the elections. Similarly, youth leader Mahesh Basnet, Gokul Baskota and former Minister Bhanu Bhakta Jaisi were defeated in the election. All contested from Oli’s side.
Meanwhile, all candidates for the post of office bearers from the Madhesi background witnessed defeat in the convention. Both the factions had fielded Madhesi candidates in their respective panels but no one secured victory. From Nepal’s side, Lalbabu Pandit was fielded for the post of vice-chairperson whereas Dharmanath Prasad Sah and Raghubir Mahaseth were contested for the posts of vice-chairperson and secretary respectively from the Oli panel.
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