Following the footsteps of secretariat member Bamdev Gautam who presented a separate dossier to counter the joint paper tabled by the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) co-chairmen on Saturday, more disgruntled party leaders are preparing to criticise Prime Minister and party chair KP Sharma Oli in the Standing Committee meeting on Monday.

Registering a 16-page dissent aimed at “enriching” the joint document prepared by Co-chairs Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Gautam charges the leadership with failing to give people hope from both the party and government fronts.

Several Standing Committee members are preparing to counter the policies exercised by the leadership in running the party and the government on Monday. The crucial party meeting was deferred by a day in order to give leaders time to study the documents.

Gautam has claimed that senior leaders including Madhav Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal and Narayan Kaji Shrestha support his document.

“Chairman Oli will face the music at the next meeting,” said a Standing Committee member, claiming that the political document has further irked SC members already irritated by the activities of Oli and his government. They argue that the party leader and prime minister failed to realise his mistakes.

Presenting a joint political document, the two chairs defended the activities of both the party and the government at a time when most leaders are criticising them.

Nepal supporters are discussing their strategy for Monday’s session.

“It depends on how the Madhav Nepal faction presents itself at the meeting. If they present themselves strongly, the meeting could linger or else it could conclude in a day or two,” said another Standing Committee member.

The meeting is said to endorse the decisions of the party secretariat and complete the unification process between the erstwhile CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre). The Nepal faction has been questioning the criteria for selecting the district leadership.

Responding to Gautam’s call for Dahal to lead the party, PM Oli said both the chairpersons would steer the government if that was possible. Addressing a function organised on Sunday to announce the merger of two party-affiliated lawyers’ bodies, Oli said there were attempts to divide the two leaders.

Clarifying that the document was prepared to draw the attention of the whole party and its leadership to the “hopelessness” in the party rank and file about the government meeting popular expectations and aspirations, Gautam has documented a number of suggestions to correct the party’s strategy.

Involved in drafting the party’s election manifesto and strategies, Gautam argues that the government undermined the party by not incorporating in its annual policies and budget the programmes it had promised to voters during the elections.

Gautam also said that government secretaries were working under the PM’s Office directly, bypassing the ministers.