It has emerged that Prime Minister Oli made the move after he got wind that some members of the Dahal faction were going to the Parliament Secretariat to register a vote of no confidence signed by 90 members against him. Dahal then reportedly heard about the decision to dissolve the Lower House even before he heard back from those registering the motion.
The NCP’s Standing Committee met on Sunday evening and decided to propose ‘disciplinary action’ against K P Oli in the forthcoming Central Committee meeting on 23 December.
Prime Minister Oli and his arch nemesis party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal have had an uneasy relationship ever since their UML and Maoist parties merged to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The infighting intensified this year as Dahal’s faction within the party put increasing pressure on Oli to either give up his party post, or the prime ministership, or both.
Dahal submitted a 19-page document to the party, listing what he said were Oli’s infractions – mainly not consulting the party on key decisions and poor governance. Oli fired back a 36-page reply, and the documents were to be discussed in a party Standing Committee meeting that Oli has been trying postpone.
Oli has played brinkmanship the whole of 2020, raising the issue of a border dispute with India in May to buy time, bringing up the excuse of the Covid-19 pandemic to suspend Parliament sittings. And he even passed an ordinance to amend the constitution to allow breakup of parties, and registered his erstwhile UML with the Election Commission.
He had President Bhandari hurriedly sign an ordinance last week to change the rules governing the appointment of officials of constitutional bodies after two members of the Constitutional Council did not attend meetings to decide on nominations.