The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has postponed its standing committee meeting for the second time after top leaders failed to resolve the leadership issues of the lower committees.

The meeting was slated for September 5-6 claiming that the panels formed to facilitate the unification of the lower committees failed to submit their report on time. Now, the meeting has been scheduled for September 11-12.

After task forces, formed to coordinate the merger process, could not forge an agreement, the party extended the deadline till August 23 and subsequently directed the subordinate bodies to submit a report even if they failed to forge consensus. However, amid the growing disatisfaction among panels in the districts, top NCP leaders are finding it a difficult proposition. The voices of discontent are mainly coming from the Madhav Nepal camp in the former UML and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa-led faction in the former Maoist Centre.

“Citing lack of proper homework for the standing committee meeting, the party has postponed the meeting for September 11-12,” said Bishnu Sapkota, press advisor to NCP Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

As the disputes over choice of leadership in the lower committees continue, Prime Minister and Co-chair of the ruling NCP KP Sharma Oli and Dahal have been entrusted with the responsibility of resolving the issue.

But the two leaders have failed to resolve the issues due to the intra-party rifts. Ten former Maoist leaders have lodged complaints against Province 3 report prepared by the panel comprising Agni Sapkota and Narayan Dahal.

“The top leaders failed to manage time to discuss the disputes as the prime minister was busy with the BIMSTEC Summit, delaying the party activities. But the disputes will be resolved once they hold discussion,” Party Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said.

Accusing the task forces of finalising their reports in haste without proper consultation with the district committees, most of the lower committees of the NCP have expressed dissatisfaction over the selection of the leadership.

Standing committee member Ghanashyam Bhusal, who claims the problem stemmed from the formation of panels to facilitate unification of lower committees picked by handful of leaders, suggested a high-level probe committee to resolve the issue. “The probe committee should finalise the recommendations only after checking whether they fit the criteria,” said Bhusal, who is close to senior party leader Madhav Nepal.

Many leaders close to Madhav Nepal complained about the discrimination mostly in Provinces 2, 4 and 5, where those close to Oli in the former UML, swept away most of the committees.

Nepal had threatened the top leaders to form parallel committees. Citing no immediate solution to resolving the issues at the lower committees, the party’s top leaders opted foreign trips before settling things.

Senior leader Nepal left the country on Thursday to attend a non-resident Nepalis in Chicago, the United States, while NCP Co-chair Dahal is leaving for India on September 7.