The faction-ridden Maoist party held the standing committee meeting at the secluded Equator Beach Resort in Sukute after successive meetings in Kathmandu failed to yield results.[break]
The meeting could neither pick leaders to send into the government, nor take any decision to settle the factional disputes in its workers´ union that has brought ignominy to the largest political party.
“We have decided to entrust the top office bearers the task of ending disputes in the workers´ union and select leaders to send into the government,” said party spokesperson Dinanath Sharma.
The Maoist leaders, however, claimed they have solved the problems and that they would move ahead united.
“The party was united in the past, is united now, and would remain united tomorrow. There were some minor problems, but the meeting has addressed them. So the party would move ahead united,” said Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at a press conference held after the two-day meeting.
Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai also spoke to journalists on party unity. “It is true that I said the party might split. What I meant to say was we should have ´unity in action and freedom of expression´,” said Bhattarai adding that the media reports about the splits are “exaggerated”.
The meeting upheld the earlier decision to make preparations for a “revolt” as the chances of constitution-drafting are getting slimmer by the day. But the party did not come up with any concrete programs for a revolt.
Appeasing the party hardliners, the party has decided not to go for the extension of the Constituent Assembly (CA) term as doing so would defer the expected “political crisis” in May -- the deadline for constitution drafting -- and hamper the party line to revolt.
Concluding that the country is heading toward a catastrophe, the party, however, decided to play a proactive role to promulgate a “people´s constitution” and conclude the peace process. “We can draft a constitution by May 28 if the political parties sincerely wish so. But the party is not ready to extend the CA term,” Chairman Dahal told reporters.
The official line of the Maoist party is to launch an “urban insurrection” to capture state power and promulgate a “people´s constitution”.
Bhattarai, however, argued that the party should sincerely put in best efforts to draft a constitution through compromise even if that requires CA term extension. The meeting, which saw disputes between the party hardliners and Dahal, upheld the line of “people´s revolt”.
The hardliners have accused Dahal of not being sincere toward the line of revolt by not charting out appropriate programs.
Perhaps the only concrete decision the party took was to send the top leaders to stage rallies throughout the country to mark the People´s Movement anniversary on April 7.
Chairman Dahal and Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya would address the masses in Kathmandu, Bhattarai will go to Surkhet and another Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha to Pokhara.
“In fact, the meeting could not take any decision. The leaders returned with a “gentleman´s agreement” not to split the party,” said a standing committee member requesting anonymity.
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