According to party office secretary Bikesh Shrestha, the CC numerical strength of the party establishment is 102, but three key figures, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Ram Karki and Sonam Sathi, were absent on personal business.[break]
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai together began to secure a comfortable majority in the CC after the party´s unification drive.
During the insurgency, the radical faction led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya had the highest number of CC members and it has since accused Dahal of expanding the CC to render it in a minority.
Party leaders Ishwori Bhattarai, Kishan Sharma and Himal Rai, who are regarded as loyal to the hardline camp, also attended the informal meeting. Similarly, Jokh Bahadur Mahara, also a ´hardliner´, come to the party office after the meeting was over. “Bhattarai, Sharma and Rai have joined the establishment, while Mahara is also likely to do so,” a leader from the party establishment claimed.
Speaking at the meeting, Dahal stated that he would make a conciliatory move to bridge the gap with the hardline faction and keep party unity intact. “There are certain elements that want to split the party. But we should try our level best to keep it intact,” a CC member quoted Dahal as saying.
It may be recalled that Dahal has accused the group led by Netra Bikram Chand of planning to split the party and has made a conciliatory move toward Baidya and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa. Dahal reiterated that the party doesn´t have any option other than to complete the peace and constitution drafting process within the current extended deadline of the CA. He, however, pointed out the need for a popularly-elected presidential system, scientific land reforms and ´dignified´ integration of the PLA.
According to sources, General Secretary Thapa, who is a key leader in the hardline faction, and Dahal held a meeting Wednesday morning prior to the party establishment´s gathering and agreed not to implement programs that could prompt clashes between cadres of the two factions at the grassroot level. The hardliners have already announced political programs to frame a ´pro-people constitution´ and integrate the PLA in a ´dignified´ manner.
After the meeting between the two leaders, Dahal also agreed, as per the hardliners´ demand, not to term his faction´s gathering a ´CC meeting´.
"We decided to hold a meeting of our faction only, as per the request of the Baidya faction," said leader Barshaman Pun from the party establishment.
The CC meeting formulated a two-month program that includes observing People´s Movement Day on April 6, the Party Anniversary on April 22 and May Day.
Similarly, the meeting also decided to revive the Young Communist League (YCL) and mobilize them in the “service” of the people. Without any political programs, the YCL has been idle and the party establishment has suddenly decided to reactivate them after the hardline faction started to tap them.
The meeting on Wednesday also formed a three-member taskforce comprising Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Girirajmani Pokharel and Devendra Poudel to consolidate the organizational base of the party establishment. The taskforce will prepare a report on ways to expand the organizational base and nominate leaders to the various committees to replace Baidya-faction leaders.
Decision to mobilize ex-combatants
Countering the Baidya faction, the party establishment also decided to form an organization on April 2 of disqualified combatants and those who were released from the cantonments under the voluntary retirement scheme.
On March 15, the radical faction had held a national gathering in Dang for ex-combatants to rally them and bolster its move against the party establishment. Addressing the gathering, General Scretary Thapa had lauded them for choosing voluntary retirement and not obeying the party establishment directive to integrate into the NA in a humiliating manner.
Over 7,000 ex-combatants, a majority of them from the Baidya faction, opted for voluntary retirement.
Baidya and Thapa had jointly appealed to the combatants to opt for voluntary retirement, while the party establishment had issued a directive to compulsorily register for integration.
The party establishment has felt pressed to jump into action to save its organizational base in the wake of the aggressive campaign by hardliners to expand their organization at the grassroots.
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