The two-day secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on Monday upheld its earlier picks for its provincial committees after senior leader Madhav Nepal reconciled his differences.

Considering Nepal’s note of dissent, the meeting however decided to strictly follow the procedures set out in the party statute and regulations while taking important decisions in future.

Amid growing dispute over leadership of the newly unified party, the two-day meeting is said to have discussed thoroughly the issues raised by Nepal, who on September 28 registered his reservations over the secretariat’s decision to announce leaders of the party’s seven provincial committees while he was out of the country.

In Monday’s meeting, Nepal explained why he was forced to protest the decision formally. According to party leaders, Nepal stressed collective decision-making as mentioned in the party statute.

The Nepal faction has voiced serious displeasure at the selection of new party committees. Few leaders close to Nepal got responsibilities in the provincial committees.

The NCP Secretariat on September 21 announced the provincial teams while Nepal and party Spokesman Narayan Kaji Shrestha were out of the country. Later, when Co-chairmen KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal were abroad, Nepal hosted a tea reception for Standing Committee members where he criticised the party leadership. He had said that he would not accept the decision made in breach of the party regulations.

A Nepal supporter claimed that the senior leader agreed to the secretariat’s decision after both Oli and Dahal admitted their mistake and vowed to correct it. Other senior leaders including Jhala Nath Khanal and Ishwar Pokhrel had pressed for the decision while the new committees have already started their activities. “We discussed Nepal’s discontent thoroughly and decided to continue with the decision made by the secretariat,” Khanal told the Post.

The meeting also decided to reject the resignation tendered by Standing Committee member Shrestha as party spokesman. After Prime Minister and party Chairman Oli questioned Shrestha for meeting senior orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda KC during his hunger strike, he had offered to quit. The NCP, formed after unification between the erstwhile CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) in May, has yet to give the provincial committees their complete shape, and form unified district committees and party departments. The next secretariat meeting is said to discuss the government’s performance, among other issues, on Wednesday.

The ruling party has scheduled its Standing Committee meeting for October 29-30. The session is expected, in particular, to finalise the outstanding issues of party unification besides devising a political strategy.