CPN-UML chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli suspended two party leaders Ghanashyam Bhusal and Surendra Pandey as general members for six months on Thursday, days after he took a similar action against Madhav Kumar Nepal and Bhim Rawal.

On March 29, the party’s Central Committee meeting, which had decided to suspend Nepal and Rawal for six months as general members, had sought clarification from Bhusal and Pandey.

After Bhusal and Pandey failed to furnish satisfactory clarifications sought by party General Secretary Ishwor Pokhrel, the party decided to suspend Bhusal and Pandey, according to Surya Thapa, a UML leader who is also Oli’s press advisor.

Ever since the UML and the Maoist Centre, which had merged in May 2018 to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), were revived by the Supreme Court on March 7, Oli has upped the ante against Nepal and other leaders close to him.

“The party has authorised Oli to take action against any leader who stands against the party unity, said Thapa. “The party chair has employed the same authority to suspend these leaders.”

In their clarification letters to the party, Bhusal charged Oli with treating them as “citizens of an enemy country” while Padney said that Oli is trying to split the party by holding separate gatherings and meetings.

In the suspension letter to Bhusal, Oli has said that Bhusal is involved in dividing the party, holding continuous factional meetings and hampering the cordial relations in the party.

“The clarification is disrespectful,” the letter reads. “You [Bhusal] failed to realise your mistakes and refused to show any signs of mending your ways.”