Saturday’s Secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has concluded with a decision to sit again on Tuesday.

“Chairman Oli has presented his political document. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday,” said Naryan Kaji Shrestha, party spokesperson and a Secretariat member. “We are yet to go through the document. We will study it first. Discussion on both the documents presented by the two chairs will start from Tuesday.”

[Chinese whispers, Sheetal Niwas and Nepal Communist Party]

Oli’s political document is in response to the one presented by Dahal at the November 13 Secretariat meeting, in which the latter has levelled serious allegations against Oli. In his document, Dahal has charged Oli with failing on both government and party fronts and engaging in corruption.

At the November 18 Secretariat meeting, Oli had made it clear that the charges levelled against him were so serious that he would not continue as party chair and prime minister if they were proven. However, the accuser [Dahal] must step down [as executive chair] if he fails to back his allegations with evidence, Oli had told the meeting.

[In ruling party, war between two chairmen is raising the spectre of a split]

The Nepal Communist Party, born out of the merger between Oli’s CPN-UML and Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre) in May 2018, is currently vertically divided along the two factions led by Oli and Dahal.

The Dahal faction, which controls the majority in the nine-member Secretariat, has accused Oli of failing to abide by party decisions and functioning in a unilateral way. The Dahal faction is putting a squeeze on Oli to make him resign from at least one post–party chair or prime minister.

[Cornered, Oli woos the opposition. But his opponents say it’s just a ploy]

Amid the widening rift, concerns have grown of late among the party members if their a little over two-and-a-half-year-old party would split. Leaders close to the chairs duo have been advising the leadership to bury the hatchet and start afresh so as to keep the party unity intact.

Insiders, however, say bitterness between the two chairs has grown with every settlement attempt, with both of them recently engaged in a shouting match and making personal attacks at each other.