The political crisis in Nepal that came to a head on December 20 last year when Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli abruptly dissolved the Parliament seems to be deepening with the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) set to expel him from the party ‘within a week”.
In a telephonic interview with CNN-News18’s Manoj Gupta on Saturday, former Nepal Prime Minister and senior NCP leader Madhav Kumar Nepal said the party is in the final stages of expelling Oli from all roles.
Although days after his sudden decision to dissolve the 275-member House of Representatives last month, Oli was removed from the chairmanship of the party, he still remained a member of the central committee.
“We had given him three days to furnish an explanation for his actions and we haven’t received any yet. He hasn’t even responded to our letter, so we have decided to expel him,” Nepal said, adding that the decision will be finalised in the next standing committee meeting of the party which is set to take place “within a week”.
Oli is facing a sustained campaign to wrest power by a rival NCP faction led by Nepal and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, another former prime minister and a newly appointed executive chairman of the party. This rivalry is said to have prompted Oli to propose the dissolution of the Parliament.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari has announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10, sparking protests from a large section of the NCP led by Prachanda and Nepal who have led massive protests against Oli accusing him of ‘unconstitutional activities’.
“If a member goes against the party line and has no regard for the party discipline or management, he or she will be expelled. We saw that he (Oli) just kept trampling on the constitution of the party and showed no signs of change. So, on the issue of breach of discipline, we have decided to expel him,” added Nepal.
“The Constitution of Nepal 2015 allows for the dissolution of the Parliament only on two occasions: one when its members cannot elect a prime minister, and secondly when a leader has the majority in the House but fails to win the vote trust within a month,” he said when asked if the party was miffed only because Oli took the extreme decision.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued show-cause notices to the Oli-led government and asked them to furnish an original copy of the recommendations made by the government to dissolve the House and the decision made by Bhandari to authenticate its recommendations.
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