State of health
Prime Minister KP Oli’s new health emergency on Tuesday has thrown off his meticulously crafted plans, and added a sense of urgency to the question of his succession.
After doctors advised him to get a second kidney transplant earlier this month, Oli had put his house in order, appointing loyalists to the cabinet and changing advisers. He planned to leave for a transplant abroad as soon as a donor was identified. Sources said two female relatives were undergoing matching tests.
But on Tuesday he was rushed to hospital for an appendectomy. His condition has improved, but doctors say a transplant is now out of the question for several months. He will need regular dialysis for the time being.
Since his decade in jail in the 1970s right up to the current prime ministership, Oli is known to ignore doctors’ orders to rest. But close aides say it is also this strong personal drive that makes him ride out health emergencies. This time, the combination of kidney and other ailments may complicate recovery.
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Oli recorded an interview at noon in Baluwatar for Bhusan Dahal’s Fireside show on Kantipur TV (pictured, above) 12 hours before he was hospitalised. Dahal said the prime minister looked alert: “In fact, I had expected him to be more frail, but he was jovial and perfectly fit.”
About his health, Oli underplayed his kidney problems, telling Dahal: “Dialysis takes time, but I am right back to work. It is a normal process. I will be around for another 15-20 years.”
In the interview he also took a dig at co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, with whom he had agreed to look after the government while Dahal headed the party. But Oli told Fireside: “We are both caretakers, but in seniority I am more senior, and he is the other chair.”
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On Thursday, the PM tweeted that he was ‘recovering rapidly’ and thanked well wishers (left).
Party insiders say the time may be near for Oli to step down, but it is the prospect of handing over the prime ministership to Dahal that is making him hold on. Former water resources minister Dipak Gyawali says the NCP never really unified, and that fissures have started to appear between the former UML and ex- Maoists.
He adds: “This is going to be a Stalinist type succession in which every contender has dirt on the other, so you either win or you are a dead loser.”